Pan’s Labyrinth
E and I had this on our Spooktober list and outside of one scene, I wouldn’t say Pan’s Labynth is scary or Halloween-esque, but overall I share E’s sentiment on this movie. Not many movies have a 98 Metacritic score, and so you’re expectation is incredibly high going into it, and in this case, it didn’t live up to it for us. That said, I did enjoy it, but the first half is slow, and was losing my attention, while the second half picks up and really pays off all the setup of the beginning. A lot of the praise from critics is the originality of it, and that’s undeniable. There’s not many original modern day fairy tales being created, and that has to be lauded. Can’t say I’d strongly recommend it unless you’re a fan of fantasy or a cinephile, but definitely don’t regret finally watching this.
-Z
This is a tough one to review - I think I understand why other people would like this, and the intention behind it, but I did not enjoy the experience of watching this for the most part, so I can’t say I agree with the insanely high Metacritic score. I found the pacing incredibly slow for the first hour or so, and while there are some pretty memorable fantasy scenes, I wanted more of that and less of the repetitive-feeling childhood trauma on display. I can see why it won/was nominated for the many Oscar nods it had, but similar to Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, it just didn’t sit right with me.
-E
