No Pan's Labyrinth but Not Bad Either

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2013)

I go into this movie with the recommendation of Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth. I believe del Toro also "presented" the Orphanage when it came out. Since I really enjoyed both Labyrinth & Orphanage, I went to theaters for Mama. Mama never had the feel or felt on the same level as either Pan's Labyrinth or the Orphanage to me. It may have been wrong of me to go into this movie with expectations on such a high level as it's predecessors (so to speak).
I liken Mama more toward the two similar Sam Raimi directed/produced fails (in my opinion) "Drag Me to Hell" and "Possession". Mama is more similar to the two Raimi tainted movies than the del Toro ones. Where Mama is better than the Raimi movies is that it's actually a horror movie that will get some reaction. I watched all three movies in theaters. Neither Drag me to Hell or Possession got a reaction from the theater crowd. That is unless you count me. I laughed a few times at the ridiculousness. Mama on the other hand was a very similar type of movie but was made well enough to be considered a descent horror film.
My personal reasons with rating this movie only above average is that, there's been numerous movies of it's kind made in recent years. While this one is not bad, it also doesn't stand out with the best either. For my taste they showed the "evil character" far too often for it to be scary. Luckily the CGI was just good enough not to ruin the movie or anything but I did see a couple of scenes that looked like they were done just because they could do it. In my personal opinion, wait for video unless you just absolutely want to see it. When you do go into it, expect something along the lines of Drag me to Hell or Possession instead of Orphanage and Pan's Labyrinth.
6 of 10 rating. Worth watching in my opinion but save it for DVD/BluRay/Netflix/Streaming/however you cheaply watch movies. It's a movie someone will mention to me in 3-5 years and I'll remember but only barely. An enjoyable two hours but overall it just blends in.