I’ll admit that I was disappointed in “Pan’s Labyrinth”. I was expecting a dark “Alice In Wonderland” but I felt I got an uneven movie. Parts of it were like “Narnia” and other parts were like a more mature and extremely violent war movie. Although I saw that they tried to merge the two by showing the horrors aren’t so different, I felt it didn’t work.

“Pan’s Labyrinth” is set in fascist Spain in 1944. We meet a girl, named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero “The New Daughter”), and her pregnant mother as they move into a military outpost in the middle of the countryside. They stay with Ofelia’s mother’s new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi López “Dirty Pretty Things”). Once there, Ofelia stumbles upon an old labyrinth where she discovers she is a lost princess and is given a chance to return to her home.

For me, one of the big problems is the cast. Everyone feels like they’re really forcing their lines and none of them feel remotely comfortable. Although his dialog is poor (just like everyone else), I will say Captain Vidal is an intimidating foe. Everyone else is really disappointing in every way, which is a real shame because I feel that if they had sorted out the acting and the dialog, it might have been a movie I’d have recommended. Some of the creatures look interesting but are not especially memorable.

The special effects are decent and film is very stylish but there are too many flaws for me. The film is never scary but it is quite unpleasant. Lots of characters are brutally stabbed, a mother dies giving birth and a child is shot. Also, the film seemed to want to be mature but at times seemed to have the sort of silly moments you would see in a corny horror movie. More work on the fantasy, less gore, better acting and less wooden dialog would have made “Pan’s Labyrinth” a wonderful film because I really do see potential in some of the material.