Movie Review: Pans Labryinth

Bernard Bond is back with his second movie review for A Welsh View. The first review was well received and he plans on continuing to review at least one movie a week. This week's movie is Pan's Labyrinth.

Pan's Labyrinth
Cert 15 (UK)

Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Running Time: 112 mins
IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457430/

In 1940's Spain, a country which is being torn apart by civil war, Ofelia (Baquero) travels with her pregnant mother to live with her new evil stepfather, Captain Vidal (Lopez). There she encounters only what can be described as a large flying cricket, which leads her into the nearby forest where she discovers a enchanting labyrinth and is given 3 tasks by a mystifying Faun named Pan (Jones).

Young Ofelia is intrigued by her new friend Pan and accepts his three challenges, which she will have to complete while avoiding the watchful eye of her evil stepfather. Pan reveals that she is a princess from the underworld, which is full of enchanting creatures, and if she completes the challenges she will be allowed back into her kingdom. But can he be trusted?

Director Guillemo Del Toro is back with a vengeance and back to his roots after his Hollywood trilogy Mimic, Blade ll and Hellboy. He creates a world full of fairies, giant toads and the excellent Pale man (again played by Jones), who has his eye-balls in the palms of his hands and reminds me of all the fantastic stop motion films I used to watch when I was young.

Captain Vidal's regime is brutal and it shows that the world on the outside of the labyrinth is even more dangerous than the labyrinth itself.

The script is fabulous and could of easily been two films. The story of the girls innocence struggling to be accepted by her stepfather during Spain's darkest hour and another story of a girl discovering a new enchanting world. But put those two together and you have what only can be described as a fairy tale for adults.

Del Toro directs with great vision and accuracy and even though I seen this movie in Spanish with English subtitles you can still see that he brings the maximum performances out of his lead performers.

I would recommend Pan's Labyrinth to all cinema lovers and certainly people who like something different and would definitely rank it as one of the best films of the year. Top job, top film.

Bernard Bond

Comments

[leeloo]

I read your review and watched the film, thanks Bernard it was excellent.

[Geoffry Palmer]

This review is a pain to behold. '..directs with vision and accuracy'? What does that even mean? I'm also rather distressed by the horrendous syntax and grammatical errors sliding off the page. '..even though I seen this movie in Spanish with English subtitles..' - are you sure you could even read them?

By the way it's could HAVE not could OF. I may be the annoying petty commentor but when you write reviews, people only see words, not you. Thus they are very important.

[Robert Gale]

Yes, you may well be the "annoying petty commentor" (hmmm, couldn't find that word in the dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/commentor)).

Bernard is just a guy who has a passion for movies and wants to share his reviews and movie knowledge with other people. If you want a review that's completely grammatically correct, go and check out The Times or Empire magazine.

[Bernard Bond]

Yes Mr Palmer. If you ever come to south Wales you will find that people say 'could of' all the time. I write reviews as I would say them. If you don't like it, you can f@&k off. no disrespect to regular Welsh View readers, obviously Mr Palmer comes from Mongolia.

[Jeanne]

We tried to watch the dvd but to our surprise this film was in english subcaptions. Did they make a english version?

[heath]

what a great movie even my son loved it. Well worth watching.

[T Cronin]

My film of the year. Refreshingly different from today's indulgance in booms and action heroes.

By the way, I sympathise with G Palmer's points of view: equally, if you cannot be told your (and that's "your" not "you're") grammar and dialogue is incorrect, then tough sh1te. I make no apology for those who support dumbing down of the english laguage. Standards, people, standards.

That aside, a decent review to be fair.

[Phelana]

Mr. Palmer, you are an annoying person. Some here English is NOT their first language perhaps? How arrogant.

[Phelana]

Mr. Palmer, you are an annoying person. Some here English is NOT their first language perhaps? How arrogant.