Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is the new movie directed by Guillermo Del Toro, also the director of such films as Devil's Backbone, Blade 2, and Hellboy. I've seen all the previous mentioned films and I think this is his best to date. The movie just feels tighter than his previous efforts and I really can't think of anything to criticize here. I think if you are going into it expecting a light fairytale type movie you will be dissapointed. What we have here is a mashup of a few different genres. Fantasy, political drama/war movie and horror all get mixed together but it works surprisingly well. It has a lot of cringe inducing scenes but they are all used carefully to support characters in the movie and not just for shock value. The movie is very intense throughout and I would not recommend taking the kiddies to it.

The acting in the movie is top notch by the whole cast. One standout is the evil captain who is so despicable he will make your skin crawl by the end of the movie. All the other actors are great and for a fantastical movie I was never distracted by the acting.

Speaking of distracted I want to mention the special effects here as well. A lot of the time with this kind of movie I will be taken out of it because I'll be thinking about how phony the effects are. This never happened while I was watching this film. All the effects, and there are quite a few fx shots, are blended expertly with the rest of the movie. There are some CG elements but it was never overused and it seemed like they did most of the main fantastical creatures using more traditional fx techniques. The faun and the crazy pale thing with eyes in it's hands are so well done and creepy that they might just be visiting you at night for a while.

Overall I would say this the best movie I have seen for a long time. It has a lot going against it (it's in Spanish, limited release, limited marketing) but I hope people turn out for it and make it a success. Interesting movies like this that do new things and push filmmaking deserve to be rewarded. So, this weekend when you are torn between watching the umpteenth movie starring Eddie Murphy in a fat suit or Pan's Labyrinth, please make the right choice and support this film. It's up for a couple of Oscars, I hope it takes some of them home.