movie: Pan's Labyrinth

[meganbmoore]

So, Pan's Labyrinth.  One of the more acclaimed recent movies, the one everyone was recently up in arms over not winning the Oscar's(or was it the Acandemy Awards?  I keep little track of such things but remember  a fair bit of talk on it at the time.)  This is a movie that I thought I'd love, that I expected to love, that everything I'd heard about led me to believe I'd think it one of the best things ever.  Sadly, I was barely interested enough to watch it all the way through.

I saw every twist, big and small coming.  I thought the fantastical designs good, but very underused.  Had the movie focused less on the war and more on Ofelia's adventures in the labyrinth, I suspect I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.  This is a movie that should have both enchanted and disturbed me and awoken my senses of wonder and of sorrow, yet I felt nothing. For a movie with twists and turns, there are two main approaches to take.  The first is to realize that your audience has a good chance of figuring things out ahead of time and making it about the journey, not the end.  The second is to rely on the twists, big an small, depending on the audience not seeing them coming and being captivated.  Unfortunately, when you rely on the second approach, if the audience does figure it out, the movie doesn't work half as well as it should.  For example:  I knew Ofelia would eat, and I knew what would happen when she did.  There was no suspense or tension for me that entire sequence because I knew what would happen, but it felt like it relied on me not knowing.  In addition, I knew Ofelia couldn't die with half the movie left, so I wasn't worried.

This is why I'm one of the few who vastly prefers The Illusionist to The Prestige.  In both, I figured out the twists pretty early on.  But The Illusionist makes it about how he did it and makes you want to see the end result...when you realize what he did is irrelevant.  The Prestige relies on the rivalry and the twists.  However, the rivalry also depends on the twists, and the audiences enjoyment relies heavily on figuring it out.  As a result, I love The Illusionist but only like The Prestige, and then largely because of the leads.

Had Pan's Labyrinth taken the approach of an eery take on well loved tradition and myth, with the story about getting to the end you knew was coming, instead of relying on suspense and twists, I suspect I would have loved it.  Instead, the only level it really worked for me on is visually, and even then only in the fantasy department.  

That said, this is a step up(multiple steps, actually) from the last movie I expected to love but didn't, One Night With the King.  I only made it about 25 minutes into that...then it was just background noise as I listened for the throne room scene to see how that was done.  That, at least, was a good scene.  Didn't compensate for the rest of what I saw and heard, but hey... 

ETA:  Forgot to say: All that said I CAN see why so many loved it as it wasn't a bad movie by any means, this is just about why it didn't work for me. 

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

As I pay little attention to those awards shows as most movies that end up there seem to be made to try to win the award, as opposed to tell stories, it's entirely possible I got the second name wrong. There are 2, though, and one is the Oscars.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

The Academy Awards is the official name of the award ceremony. The Oscars is the nickname of the statue that is given to the winners and is used as a second name for the ceremony.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*bows down to the one with greater knowledge*

So, what's ther other awards show? I'm positive there are 2...

I knew there was a reason I should pay attention to such things.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Emmys, which are for TV. There's a primetime and daytime version.

Golden Globes -- I thnk those are both movies and TV.

There's also the Screen Actor's Guild Awards, but I'm not sure what those are for.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Golden Globes would be what I was thinking of.

I view my friends-both online and RL, as better critics and awards nominators than the ones who get paid for it. They tend to look at it for enjoyment, rather than to pick it apart, but my bit.

Just FYI

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

The Golden Globers are voted on by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and are often viewed as a joke due to the lax rules, etc. The Academy Awards (or "Oscars") have very strict rules, and awards are voted on by members of the Academy, and for some categories, like Directing, they can only be voted on by members of that branch of the academy, which largely means by other directors. In any case, the Oscars are awards granted (generally speaking) by the film community while the GG are press-based. Which is why I don't pay any attention to the GG at all and I do pay attention to the Oscars (at least a little) since many of the voters are or were involved in the actual process of filmmaking.

Personally, I tend to find reviewers whose taste coincides most closely with my own, and I watch films that intrigue me and make up my own mind. Even depending on friends/family doesn't always work because my taste is quite independent! :)

To go back to the original topic of your post: I did like 'Pan's Labyrinth' (http://winterspel.livejournal.com/238987.html), although I can understand why you did not.

Re: Just FYI

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I can easily see why it was so popular, and why many love it, it just didn't work for me. Part of the problem was that with that first voiceover, my head went "yeah, and I'll bet she *whistles for everyone reading this who hasn't seen the movie* to get there" because that's what happened every other time. I think I have simply seen and read too much period and fantasy stuff(I've been saturating myself with both since I was about 8...) to properly appreciate a movie that seems geared to people who aren't familiar with it, or at least, as familiar.

I tend to read/listen to the reviews of friends and family and listen for things where we usually agree, and be more cautious about things where we may not always agree. This is one of the rare occassions where that didn't work out for me, even though I can see why it's loved, and why it was thought that I'd love it(a huge chunk of my LJ is a testament to why people would rec it to me, really)

And thanks for the awards info.

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are the acting awards that the actors vote on exclusively for acting skill in film/tv, etc. - if you act in U.S. productions, you have to belong to the actors' union (Screen Actors Guild) which helps guarantee pay scales among many other things, so only members vote for these awards. A way to honor their own community.