An Epic Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (20 May 2007)

I never really fell into the group of people hyped up for this film, I thought it looked good but too phony and fantasy like not too mention i thought it might turn out like Narnia.Pan's Labyrinth is however one of the best epic fantasy films ever made right up there with Lord Of The Rings, and King Kong in terms of cinematic perfection.The film is not a complete fantasy world like the previews portray it as it is only on consistent occasion that the main character Ophelia enters the world of the Labyrinth where most of the film takes place in the real world on a military base.The film has extremely surprising and violent content and is definitely not a fantasy film for children so for those thinking this will be anything close to Harry Potter, Narnia, or Eragon think again before taking your child to see this relentlessly gory yet artistically beautiful film.If any of you are gamers and have played Resident Evil 4 you'll know of the eerie creatures and hauntingly beautiful settings such as enormous corridors and eerie rooms and a certain scene in Pan's Labyrinth will definitely remind you of what made Resident Evil 4 such a great game to look at.Speaking of visual style the movie does one of the most fantastic jobs at creating a beautiful fantasy world without anything looking cheesy or fake.The CGI is masterful and is probably the best and most realistic use of CGI since King Kong while the props and costumes for the majority of the creates make them feel much more real.The movie does a good job of emotionally drawing you to certain characters and hating other characters so when certain things happen to them you are devastated or extremely happy so the movie does a perfect job in terms of character development and getting you into the film to root for who it wants you to root for.The gore and violence is realistic, stylized, and intense and the blood effects are absolutely amazing, they don't look the very least bit fake.The storyline moves along at a pretty good pace it gets slow very rarely as the action is spaced out well over the course of the movie.In one word i would describe Pan's Labyrinth as "Epic".Guillermo Del Toro i've always felt was overrated as i enjoyed Blade 2 and Hellboy but not to the point of thinking "hey the new Del Toro films out it's gotta be good" now i see the talent everybody is talking about.Very well done by the entire production it deserved the 3 Academy Awards it received and undeniably should have won the Academy Award for best score over An Inconveniant Truth.This movie is an epic masterpiece i now look forward to Del Toro's work.