Pan’s Labyrinth initial reaction

Guillermo Del Toro’s new film does not quite live up to its hype and (at least in my opinion) it’s no match for his earlier masterpiece THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE.

But even if it’s not totally great, it is near-great, and I suspect a subsequent viewing may reveal even greater riches.

UPDATE: I just wanted to add that we saw the film at a sold-out show at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood (screenings before and after ours were also sold out). It was pretty cool that this little foreign-language film could draw a big crowd that could fill a large venue like that, which doesn’t necessarily cater to an art-house audience. The crowd really seemed to enjoy the film, reacting audibly to the big moments and weeping near the end. The one exception seemed to be the poor guy sitting next to me, who apparently got roped into the movie by his friends, who neglected to tell him it was in Spanish with subtitles. I don’t know if he was dyslexic or illiterate, but as the credits rolled, he was complaining that because of the language barried he had no idea what was going on from start to finish. Oh well, there always has to be one nay-sayer…