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February 26, 2007 by mr_flood.
I was looking for something to do a couple of days ago and thought I’d go see a movie. After perusing the website for the local area the only thing I saw playing that was remotely interesting was Pan’s Labyrinth. After reading the review, and seeing that it was only playing in one theater at two different times, I knew that it was most likely a foreign language film, which didn’t bother me. I’ve enjoyed quite a few foreign language films over the years, most notably the original Le Femme Nikita. So off I went.
I was actually surprised that I wasn’t the only one in the theater, this being a foreign film, but the theater was far from crowded. Well, the first thing I noticed was that it was filmed using a technique that I’m sure there’s a name for, which I don’t know, but that I did not like. The whole thing was filmed with low lighting, a blue-ish tint (even in daytime scenes), and a sort of ‘blur’ that made everything seem to blend together. I’ve seen this technique used in dream sequences in other movies and understand it’s visual potential but to use it for the whole movie was a bit too much for me. And the lack of color distracted from the fantasy aspects of the movie. When I see fairy’s or fauns I expect them to be colorful creatures, not gray-blue blurs. That being said, I also understand what the director was going for, but for me it just didn’t work.
Second, the story was boring and drawn out. There were moments of tension and suspense but the in-between drama was uninteresting.
Finally, the ending just disappointed me. ***Spoiler alert*** I was expecting a fantasy film and when it turns out that it was all likely just something the girl made up in her head I got pissed off. A great part of a film’s success hinges on properly managing audience expectations and this was done poorly here. Sort of like going to see Stallone in a movie called ‘Kill them All’ and find out it’s about an insecure bachelor trying to excoriate the rabbits from his flower garden and the psychological fall-out of such.
In the end I would say that if your looking for a good fantasy flick this is not it.
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