Pans Labyrinth Review

The Labyrinth of Films

Pans Labyrinth stays true to its name and it leaves you lost in your decision whether or not to demand you money back.

At first glance this movie seems alright. The real world and magic world are intertwined both edging to become the one true reality. But it’s not enough and in the end the movie is lacking.

This movie takes place in Spain, during May and June in 1944 after the civil war and during Franco’s Spain. Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero) is a little girl who has a love for fairy tales and fantasy books. She moves to a mill up in the mountains with her mother who is pregnant and is getting ill. Carmen (played by Ariadna Gil) is married to Captain Vidal (played by Sergi Lopez I Ayats) who is a cruel and unfriendly man. He is ruthless, cold, and prefers the company of men rather than women. Ofelia meets Mercedes (played by Maribel Verdu) who becomes her caretaker and overseer when Carmen cannot. Ofelia is lured into the Labyrinth by a fairy where she meets the faun and is given three tasks to return to her world and become Princess Moanna. The characters are the core to this story keeping it real and interesting, to an extent.

If someone could get me an enormous coke to make up for this horrible performance that would be great. Predictability, you can almost say what is coming out of characters mouth before they say it. Although you might not think in Spanish you can guess what they will say in English. Ofelia the little drama queen in the movie runs about dilarious trying to choose between worlds. Her character acts brave for her age and that is hardly believable and on top of that when she eats from the feast table and gets chased wouldn’t she have run faster? She was basically walking back to the door! This film is like a replay of Little Red Riding Hood and as good as that was, it isn’t working for this film. Guillermo Del Toro attempts to milk the story for everything its worth, and he succeeds. Not only does he kill a typical childhood story plot he ruins these actors careers by putting them into this film. Sure they make out fine, but seriously who wants to put Pans Labyrinth in their memoirs as a film they were in? Not me surely. The plot was easy enough to follow, just read Little Red Riding Hood or some other childhood fairy tale and it’s practically the same thing.

Isn’t there anything that will make this movie half decent? Well let’s just hope the production crew has their thinking caps on. They do, and throughout the entire film the set design crew and special effects crew wow the audience repeatedly. The faun is voiced over, did anyone notice? No? As it should be, these men and women of the production crew are professionals and everything is done exquisitely. From the crumbling and vine covered walls of the labyrinth to the animated features of the faun and his fairies everything is complete in its beauty, even though the Labyrinth is spooky It’s still made beautiful by the set designers.

The film was a slap in the face to the fantasy genre it really was. It was a disappointment at every turn except for its special effects, it failed my expectations. I expected to be moved by performances and heartfelt during the sad moments, instead I almost laughed at the ending, it was a joke. I recommend this film for people new to the fantasy genre as it’s easy to understand, otherwise I’d advise against it. I give this film two eaten pixies out of five.