I simply don't see the big hooplah...*SPOILERS*

Rating: 5/10 (30 July 2009)

I can't add anymore really, than some of the more realistic non-rose colored glasses-wearing voters/reviewers that I have read so far, have stated about this over-hyped, coffeehouse-artsy, brain drain of a movie.
This review may seem harsh, but I tend to judge "theatrical" movies with a MUCH harsher eye than Indie movies due to the budgets theatrical movies have (and Indies don't) and the much more experienced and influential directors that theatrical movies have - and Indies don't.
With that said...with GDT at the helm...I expected much more from this movie...especially since it was hyped like the best thing since sliced bread.
I guess that's why hype is not always a good thing.
I'm simply voicing my personal displeasure at hearing what a magical, well-done, purely fascinating movie this was, only be left thinking...'That's it? This was good makeup wise and the scenery was kind of cool, but THIS is it?' My main problem with this movie is the subsequent actions of some of the characters and how they are simply touched on and yet people are attaching huge amounts of symbolism to them.
I have heard people say that the only downfall to this movie was that it was in Spanish and they had to be bothered reading subtitles in order to understand it - and therefore possibly missing some important parts while they're reading.
Sorry...problems with this movie go beyond subtitles.
The disobedience of Ofelia is infuriating and makes the entire movie unbelievable as a whole, on any point. Until the end of the movie, she obeys the faun, this mythical character that would scare the dickens out of most kids (call me crazy, but in my opinion, he looked evil and I'd have run as fast as my legs would carry me had he appeared to me, no matter how many fairtyales I'd read!) without question and yet when it's MOST important (the scene with the child eating pale man) she completely abandons all common sense.
Okay, so she went to bed with no supper, that excuses eating the grapes when she was, in no uncertain terms, told that her LIFE would depend on NOT eating, no matter what she saw? I've read that she was in a trance, that it symbolizes this and that. Give me a break. She's just a typical kid that does what she wants when it suits her. No big mystery, meaning or symbolism there.
And what of Mercedes? She can gut innocent pigs with no problem (as she says when she has the blade in the Captain's cheek) but she can't kill a murdering Fascist creep like him, thereby freeing the rebels and herself from his oppressive and cruel grip? People say, "Well, it's easy to say what you'd do if you haven't been in the situation." True...but it's also easy to say what you wouldn't do in the same situation, if you haven't lived it. I just think the entire situation was unrealistically presented.
I resent all the ravings about this film and people trying to attach meaningless symbolism to this pieced together fairytale. Sometimes a movie is just a movie and I'm afraid this is one of them.
What a disappointment.