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Review/Critique: Pan's Labrynth

Pan's Labyrinth


 Guillermo Del Toro


Review: While Guillermo Del Toro may be an incredibly famous director nowadays, known for his super out there artsy fartsy films, there was a time when he was little known - at least in the American public eye. He certainly wasn't a nobody, but if you asked most Americans if they'd heard the name before, they would say no. That is until this movie came out. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the most famous foreign films ever made, and pretty much single-handedly launched Guillermo Del Toro into the spotlight of modern film making. What struck me as odd about this film though right off the bat is that even though every single one of my friends had heard of this movie before, close to none of them had seen it. One of them even contested that the movie was in Spanish since "the film has David Bowie in it." So yes while most of my friends had heard the name "Pan's Labyrinth" before, they had absolutely no idea what the movie was about and even less of an idea the number of times David Bowie appears in the film (It's 0 in case you are dying to know). Now though I am in the camp of people who have both heard of and seen this movie, and so are a number of my friends. So the question is, is this movie good? Absolutely.

         Pan's Labyrinth exceeded my expectations more than any of the movies I have seen so far. Even knowing that this movie was directed by Guillermo Del Toro, for some reason I believed it would be a very average movie about a girl trapped in a fantasy world a la anime's notorious isekai genre. I wasn't alone either. Most of my friends also believed that this movie was going to be an average isekai and like myself were proven wrong. I'm unsure why this movie has that reputation to be honest. Perhaps it's just a victim of its own popularity, perhaps its because of the way the film was marketed to western audiences, I don't know. What I can say though is that this film is much better than I expected it to be and is one of the furthest things from an average movie watching experience that I have seen. Pan's Labyrinth is an intensely bizarre acid trip inducing movie with a really out there atmosphere, setting, and leading cast of characters. The thing that surprised me the most about this movie though was undoubtedly the tone. Perhaps I should have glanced at the rating once more but for some reason I thought the movie would have a pretty childish tone and atmosphere. I thought it would be dark, sure, but a Coraline or brother's Grim type of dark that's still suitable for most audiences. This movie is not only darker than those two movies, it's darker than all the movies I have seen up until this point, including The Revenant. Oh - also it's very violent. There are some moments in this movie I had to turn away from the screen because of how gory or gruesome they were. Now this isn't meant to come off as a complaint about the movie, rather something I did not expect and was surprised to see be the case. On the contrary, I actually think the atmosphere in this movie was amazing - it just wasn't what i was expecting at all.

         This movie was an engaging, deeply creepy romp from start to finish. At all times you are wondering how every individual character's story will conclude, in what ways they are related and how they will all tie in with one another. In all honesty I have very little negative to say about this movie. It's like a creepy, spanish, adult Disney movie set in the middle of a bloody civil war. It executes its concept and ideas very cleanly, the acting was stellar although there wasn't really anyone in particular that blew me away other than Sergi López as Vidal. The mix of practical and virtual effects was great and never broke immersion, and of course most importantly the story elements kept me intrigued throughout the entirety of its two hour runtime and all felt like they reached their natural conclusion. As well I always love a movie that has a lot to talk and theorize on far after watching and Pan's Labyrinth certainly delivers on that idea as well. All in all I was very satisfied upon completing this movie.

Recommendation: For recommendations I have to begin by recommening this movie to anyone who is a fan of any of Guillermo Del Toro's other movies. They all have some indescribable quality to them that leads me to believe if you like one of them you will like them all. If you're unsure, consider if you tend to be a fan of weird, dark, more out there movies or the fantasy genre as a whole. If yes, I would say there is a very good chance you will like this movie if you can handle the more violent scenes. If no, this movie probably won't be for you. If you are on the fence, give it a try and feel free to yell at me about how much you hate it. (I don't think you will though!)


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And that's it for my review of Pan's Labyrinth! This is probably one of my favorite reviews that I have done, so I hope you enjoyed it. Join me soon when I will be talking about Wolfenstein II, until then!

- Malachi

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