What is really great about this movie is its alternating stories. Part of the time it focuses on the army fighting the guerrillas and the other part it focuses on Ophelia trying to prove herself to be worthy of returning to the underground realm. The stories do not intertwine until the ending when even then they do not fully mix. The direction was awesome, knowing when to be mysterious, when to be exciting, and when to be tragic. The music had a creepy and mysterious tone to it, which matched the movies tone. The sets were pretty cool also. My favorite scene from the movie was Ophelia's second trial. It was really suspenseful at first and then intense and scary. I thought the pale creature's design was brilliant. The only things I thought could be improved on were that Ophelia isn't a very interesting character as she is not meant to be much more than an innocent, imaginative kid, and that I wished the story would focus a bit more on the fantasy part which I found to be more interesting than the realistic part. This is a must see if you like dark fantasy movies.
Review of Pan's Labyrinth
