haunting....but distracting

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2007)

the good things first.after making a series of wonderfully shot trashes like Blade2 and Hellboy,Guillermo del Toro comes with movie that is serious,noble,visionary and lingering.that performances are top notch,the camera breathes a life of its own,the story is strikingly original beside rehashed Hollywood plots.a passionate,if sketchy,idea of revolution is seamlessly woven into a fairytale framework.it makes you feel 'good'---something that is generally missing in mainstream Hollywood. the problem lies in what can be called the 'hollywood sensationalism' the movie is fraught with. del toro is trying hard to get over the Hellboy hangover,and there are scenes enough to distract you from the main plot.take,for instance,the graphic violence.was it really necessary to 'show' a man sewing his lips together?isn't that pure box office trick?people would squirm,no doubt,but is it really the point this movie should make?the movie could have been far more potent minus the bloodshed,trust me.
for me,its a 6 out of 10.could have been 8.