Pan's Labyrinth

[Banshee16]

Anyone see this movie yet? Seems like a cinematic take on "darker" faeries, like out of Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey...

Did you enjoy the movie?

Banshee

 

[satori01]

I saw the movie, and quite liked it. A couple of warnings:

1) Trailer reveals most of the 'fantasy' scenes. The movie is set much more in the 'real' world than in a fantasy realm.

2) The film is a Guilermo Del Torro film, and is dark, darker than I think Cronos is.

3) The Fey are very old school: Dangerous, oft menacing, deceitful, and you are never quite sure they are real.

 

[Wombat]

**sigh**

I would love to see this one...

 

[Sir Brennen]

Hopefully it will be in wider release next weekend. Along with Children of Men

 

[Klaus]

It was released down here about two months ago, and the critics said it was really good, one of (if not the) best works of Del Toro.

 

[frankthedm]

Hopefully it will be in wider release next weekend. Along with Children of Men

Don't count on it. Movies this dark don't make mad cash and that is what puts movies on wide release.

I liked it. Was annoyed how much parking costs in Chi town if one does not plan ahead. But I'd say it was a 23 dollar movie.

3) The Fey are very old school: Dangerous, oft menacing, deceitful, and you are never quite sure they are real.

I don't think they were that dark overall IMHO, there was potential for them to be far darker. Darker than Hollywood lets them be, but to me very old school fey would require she

Spoiler

pull a changling swap with her baby brother for entry to the fey realm

rather than

Spoiler

choose to sacrifice herselfself or an innocent

. To me that is good and evil playing hardball, rather than being dark oldschool fey.

As for if they are real or not...

Spoiler

The mandrake root the faun / satyr / Pan gives the girl seems real and its dying screems seems to badly effect the mother. At the end, after the girl seems denied access from the fey realm forever, the Step-father does not see the faun / satyr / Pan giving the girl her 'second chance' and so at that time the girl might be delusional. Her golden entry in the fea court pans out with the girl's body dying in the real world so that could have been her 'near death experience', in this case followed by death.

... It all comes down to how happy you want the ending to be!

 

[Remus Lupin]

Was annoyed how much parking costs in Chi town if one does not plan ahead.

Gotta take the L man.

 

[paradox42]

Was annoyed how much parking costs in Chi town if one does not plan ahead.

Gotta take the L man.

Not really possible when one lives in the burbs, as frank does (Romeoville is far southwest, near Joliet). And as I do (Aurora is far west). I could potentially take Metra, but for a movie that's an 80-minute trip each way and you have to schedule your downtown activities around the train timetable, because the last train out leaves at 1 AM and if you're not on it- you're SOL until 8 the next morning. I'm not sure whether any Metra goes down to where frank is. Metra is just really, really horribly inconvenient for any sort of trip downtown except a daily commute to work in the Loop.

And yeah, parking's a beeyatch-and-a-half in downtown Chicago!

Looks like I'll be waiting for it to show up at the AMC Cantera 30 out near me in Warrenville. Too bad, looks like a good movie...

 

[LightPhoenix]

Don't count on it. Movies this dark don't make mad cash and that is what puts movies on wide release.

It could see wider release to art houses and non-chain cinemas, kind of like what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did before it hit mainstream.

 

[mmu1]

This really is a movie that any fantasy fan should see - it's a shame it's not seeing wider distribution. I'm not sure it wouldn't make money, either - I saw it on a weekday night, and the theater was absolutely packed.

In any case, the story, the way the fantasy meshes with reality, the locations, sets, effects, art design, acting - it all ranges from very good to excellent.

I don't recall ever seeing a movie with so many gushing reviews which I actually liked enough to feel they were justified, before... I think the difference here is that unlike many others similarly acclaimed films, the movie doesn't preach, and is free of any kind of pretentious "arthouse" sensibilities, while naturally also managing to entertain, albeit not in a light and casual way.