Pan's Labyrinth

[Vanilla]

Review/Discuss

[acsc1312]

Oh Pan's Labyrinth, how I love thee. This is my favorite foreign language film. Del Toro's directing is absolute perfection, as well as the cinematography. Navarette created such a great atmospheric score for this. Doesn't stand well alone after multiple listenings, but always is great during the film. So many great scenes, especially the man with no eyes. So chilling. One of my favorites.A+

[Travod]

The thing with the hand/eyes was a let down because it looked cooler in still photos/posters.And Ophelia deserved to die, what an idiot.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Dragon Travtoo

[IndustriousAngel]

I liked this very much on the big screen and bought it on BR but it loses a bit with multiple viewings. Maybe the story is too depressing or cold, or (most propably) Ofelia not interesting enough as a character. Still, very much recommended if you haven't seen this yet. The fantasy part had some perfect designs and a real other-world-quality to it; the real-world part a bleak realism very fitting for a war film.

[stripe]

Here in Spain we're saturated of films dealing with Civil War and Franco's repression. And particulary this one was a fraud, a cliched story with maaaaaany plot holes and a bad mix of two genres. It could be very good, but in the end the fairy tale roles had more depth than the real ones. That's because of the simplistic and archetipic missconception that Del Toro has from the Spanish history.

[Plain Old Tele]

One of the great modern fairytales.

[MagnetMan]

Absolutely mesmerizing. I had been a big fan of The Devil's Backbone so this one had my attention from the moment I first heard of it. The imagery in this film burns itself into your memory from the first viewing. It's hard to pull off this art direction without coming across trite shock-pandering.

[Jack Nevada]

Finally managed to see this, and I have to say the violence, the grotesque imagery and just pure human cruelty manifested in the character of Captain Vidal made Pan's Labyrinth a hard movie to watch. Dont get me wrong, I was extraordinarily moved and fascinated by this picture, but I'm just saying its not one I'll be coming back to time and time again. The two stories never quite gel together perfectly imo but yeah, this is a terrific, powerful piece of fantasy cinema.

 

4,5/5

[Michael Gary Scott]

Del Toro best film. 5/5

[RobinHood26]

-

Edited November 16, 2018 by Jay Hollywood

[Noctis]

One of my favorite films ever. It is one of the most human films I've seen. 

[riczhang]

It's not as good on rewatch but still brilliant. One of the best films of 2006.

[Squaremaster316]

****3/4.  A simply mesmerizing piece of storytelling especially at using its unique visuals to help move a story forward, unlike other films from some other directors, which are purely "style over substance" *coughBatmanReturnshack*.  Del Toro is easily my favorite "visual" storyteller.

[LexJoker]

Marvelous. Absolutely Marvelous. Mesmerising movie.

 

A+

[luna]

'tis a beautiful movie.

 

A- (85)

[Crusader]

Perfect 

 

top 10 for me 

 

10/10 

[RobinHood26]

Top 25 for me. 

[DeeCee]

I cold purchased the Blu Ray over a year ago and tonight I finally decided to watch it. Now I'm wondering why I waited so long. It's fantastic, beautiful and gruesome film. A real fairy tale of old without the saccharine syrup of Hollywood.

[DeeCee]

And a minor quibble. The title is missing the apostrophe. Pan's Labyrinth.

[Goffe]

Del Toro once described Pan's Labyrinth as being a sibling film to The Devil's Backbone. I hope he didn't mean as in the effort put into the script or something like that, cause PL has nothing, absolutely nothing on TDB. 

Characters are not as nearly as complex and layered, the plot resorts to absurd sequences to get the film going, among other things. 

I also strongly disliked the little stupid brat that protagonized this movie, I was wishing her death just 20 minutes after the movie started.

And to think I loved this the first time I watched it.

60/100

 

With this movie, I complete my Del Toro marathon, which was a warming up for his new film Crimson Peak, only to find out that Universal wouldn't bring CP to my town. Oh well, here's the ranking anyway.

1. Devil's Backbone 80/100

2. Hellboy 2 80/100

3 Pacific Rim 70/100

4. Pan's Labyrinth 60/100

5. Hellboy 55/100

6. Cronos 45/100

7. Mimic 40/100

8. Blade 2 15/100

 

Edited October 27, 2015 by Lucas Marmol