Pan's Labyrinth

Love that doesn't touch me, cruelty that becomes routine and a fairytale atmosphere that cannot provide the necessary comfort due to its fragmentation. Del Toro took on too big of a bite, which crumbled into two large crumbs. One slightly smaller, sweet yet bland, the other worn out and almost hard. And not tasty at all. Fragments of a fascinating world, successful atmosphere of fairies, Fauna and creatures from Ofelia's tasks, these are aspects that simply had to captivate me. But there remains the second part with the partisans, eternal failures, and the wild stubbornness of Captain Vidal. When the script tries to torment the viewer with "bad events" too much, it starts to bother me. But when every turn hides obstacles, misfortune, or disaster, sympathy for the main characters disappears completely. Compared to Hellboy packed with ideas to bursting, surprisingly constrained and one-sided detour to nowhere. (04/01/2008)

The most balanced and the best del Toro movie I’ve seen. And it has the same theme music as in Circus Humberto. A chamber price about war with a big pinch of gloomy, fairytale fantasy. The problem is the length, because especially in the first hour the pace is far too relaxed. On the other hand, it is hard to fault the second half; everything is flawless. It’s a sort of successful concoction containing The Devil’s Backbone and the unmistakable storytelling poetry of Neil Gaiman. (26/12/2006)

Pan’s Labyrinth has everything that Tim Burton’s movies used to have in the old days – spiritual content clad in a stunning visual package. It is a unique fantasy that blends the fantastic world of a little girl’s imagination with the cruelest face of the adult world. It is thus two powerful movies in one, leading to a surprising, poetic and very thought-provoking ending. Pan’s Labyrinth seems like an adaptation of a rich fantasy novel, perfectly rendered on the silver screen. Guillermo del Toro’s genius lies in the fact that his film is not based on any book but on his own highly sophisticated script. Introducing the horrifying aspect of the film in form of the actions of Sergi López’s character at the very beginning of the film is an arguably brutal, but very effective decision! (29/09/2017)

During this film, I felt as if Guillermo del Toro had put me on a merry-go-round. At times I found myself in the middle of a military camp suppressing a handful of rebels, and then suddenly witnessing a fairy tale fantasy full of weird creatures. It's certainly an entertaining, exciting and at times thrilling ride, but the effect visibly falters over time and there are some rusty spots, whether it's the incomprehensible brutality that must have shocked the excited younger audience a great deal, or the slight neglect and relegation of Pan and his tasks at the expense of the war, and they grow in number and my impressions were rather mixed when it was over. In any case, just for the premise and the director’s courage, I round up to ****. (23/05/2011)

Earthly life is sad and violent, while the world of supernatural beings is magical and pleasant. In this film, however, things are definitely not like that. Yet in the supernatural world, you can at least eventually find justice. In the earthly world, no. Or yes? Just as Ophelia cannot reconcile herself with the (albeit inconspicuous) injustice done to an innocent creature and, as a result, becomes an innocent victim herself, Spain was forced to become a victim of Franco's fascism for four decades. Ophelia is rewarded for it in the fairy tale world. Spain, in the real world, may not seem like it at first glance, but there is still a chance - if the Spaniards were not willing to sacrifice the innocent for their own happiness, the new generation, even if it emerges from the horror of the previous generation, can experience more just and free times. (28/06/2012)