Visually Amazing

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2008)

Pan's Labyrinth is one of the most artistic films I have seen in a while. The art direction is amazing, with sets and effects that are astonishing. However, while the look of the film is gorgeous it holds a very dark story.
Pan's Labyrinth is about a young girl named Ofelia who is living with her mother and her stepfather who is a Captain in the Spanish Civil War. The brutality of this war is never masked and introduced to us from the beginning of the film. Ofelia is a child that does not deal with the brutality but instead goes into a magical world where she must deal with its own brutality.
This film has the most amazing visual effects that blend right into the film. Unlike most CGI, the effects in this film blend right into the story instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. The effects are done so well that they add to the visual aesthetic.
The story itself is very well done by combining the magical world with the real one, even color scheme remains the same allowing for both worlds to seamlessly blend into each other. Although the story does deal with a magical world it is obviously not for children and has been described as an adult fairy tale. This is exactly what this film is. With adult themes and detailed violence this film is meant for a mature audience.
Another part of this film that is interesting is that it takes a brutal moment in history and shows it through not only the eyes of an imaginative child, but parallels it with the world Ofelia is sucked into. While there is history in this film no knowledge of the Spanish Civil War is needed since a narrator explains the war at the beginning of the film. While in most films this can be a misplaced mistake, but in Pan's Labyrinth it fits very nicely. Overall this film is an visually amazing while also succeeding at telling a very captivating story.