Beautiful, without much substance. Too much graphic violence. Mediocre acting.

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2007)

True, it's an interesting concept in theory--creating a child's point of view of brutality by creating a film about a child retreating to her imagination during wartime.
But the film's message and its characters, the two things that really matter to me in a serious film like this, are so banal that I cannot find myself liking this movie.
This film's message is that abuse of power is wrong and that war is bad. It is just so black-and-white, without much thinking involved...it's like saying "stealing is bad". It's so obvious, and the film is so serious about the message...very single-dimensional, and to be honest, rather off-putting for me.
Characters were pretty cartoonish as well, with no complexity, no depth. Again, not interesting. It could be due to the movie being shot from a child's point of view--but I don't think lack of more complex characters enhanced the film.
As for its concept of contrast between the dark, gritty reality with the child's imagination...it had potential to be interesting. I didn't like how they carried it out, however--the film makers decided to create the contrast using graphic violence, which is rather off-putting and pointless, rather than sad or heartbreaking. Yes, I do admit that it takes a lot to make the adult movie audience these days be shocked by violence. But by creating better characters, I think it's still possible to make a greater emotional impact without using the overtly graphic violence shown here. By the way, the violence is such that a man passed out in my local theater during a scene in this film, and had to be carried out in an ambulance. I'm not kidding.
There are definitely good elements in this film, such as good direction. Undoubtedly the show's center piece, there is a fantastic scene with a flesh eating monster that is taught, wondrous, eerie and beautiful.
The look of the movie feel similar to the Lemony Snicket movie--only difference is that this film used darker tones in set design. Personally, I would rate this movie at the same level artistically and conceptually as Lemony Snicket, although I think Pan's Labyrinth is meant to be more than that. I do have to give it lots of credit for their awesome visuals, as its budget of $18M (vs. $140M for Lemony Snicket) is pretty incredible. But in the end, it's good set production that deserves acclaim, not the overall artistry of the film.
The ending felt forced...did not connect with me, personally. I walked out feeling that overall, I did not gain much from the film. My distaste for the violence and the lack of character depth really put me off, which erased any positives. I could see how people would walk away with positive review of this film, but it's definitely over-hyped.