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Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
2006 | Fantasy
Even though this isn't that good, the resounding acclaim still makes sense to me because this is pretty much exactly what normies would have wanted out of this movie - to a T. The grand, moving mythic-fantasy spectacle this could have been takes a backseat to like only 4 full-fledged fantasy scenes swept under the suffocating carpet of yet another trite war drama. I realize this is deeply personal to Del Toro, and I'm not trying to invalidate that - but I think somewhere in his love for the project he forgot to add actual... depth to the thing because to him, just this film existing was enough? Don't get me wrong, it's still fine as it is - when it actually decides to be a fantasy film instead of a generic parable for self sacrifice (yawn, plus hot damn the ending is shitty *and* problematic) I think this looks great even though it's color-coded like a sickly Eiffel 65 music video for some reason. Moment to moment this is okay, some scenes work more than others. But ultimately it boils down to another batch of empty cyphers and caricature villains in the orbit of a boring heroine from Del Toro - who seems to specialize in that. A mishmash of unsubtle things he thinks have nuance but don't, though worth it for the practical effects alone.