Wow, thanks for the heads up on the tragedy level, Crosis. I was expecting really tragic and brutal, so it didn't seem that harsh to me. I liked the movie a lot. Del Torro is an awesome director. I have two criticisms though. 1) I'm not really sure what the movie is about. Superficially, you can describe the movie by the events that take place, but I'm not really sure there is any deeper meaning other than, life sucks and then you die . . . try to make the most of it. That criticism could be my own short coming though. 2) The title. Why Pan? The Faun never says his name is Pan, right? Why not the direct literal translation: The Faun's Labyrinth?
SPOILER: My absolute favorite part is the Pale Man sequence. When I first saw that in Fangoria (yes I still subscribe), it looked laughable and muppet like. I did not expect any part of this movie to be scary, but that whole sequence freaked me out. The Pale Man was much crepier than I thought he'd be. Mostly because of the boney legs and jerky walking motion. I was shitting my pants! I'm sure to have a nice nightmare about that tonight.
: I just finished watching it. I'm not exactly sure what I think. The trailer
: was practically a lie. It made it seem like it was going to be a wondrous
: and magical movie, almost akin to something like Legend or Labyrinth.
: Certainly everything that was in the trailer is in the movie, but it's
: certainly not what the movie is about. I think of myself as a cynic, but
: the movie start to finish was a little more tragic than I like. It was
: extremely well done. The cinematography was exactly as the trailer made it
: look. The acting seemed good, though it's always hard to judge acting in a
: foreign language. Most of the movie was bereft of music, but when there
: was soundtrack it was perfectly augmental (I know, not a word...), sad,
: melodic, beautiful. I'm not usually good with subtitles, but I had no
: problem here. I'm just not sure if I liked the story. It was brutal.
: As I said, I just finished watching it, perhaps after I reflect on it for a
: bit I will be able to decide whether I really liked it or not.