Something Else
05-28-2007, 09:37 PM
So, I finally saw this. It was a bit difficult to get started with, as it seemed like a very typical fairy-tale, and having been disappointed with Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask I expected a similar disappointment here. But it turned out to deeply impress me, even if certain creative decisions confused me.
The overall plotline was great, fairly clear but still with plenty of twists and turns. The overlapping reality/fantasy stuff was quite interesting, and of course as always with films of this type we're left uncertain as to whether or not the fantasy bits were real at all. Of course, the entire thing was a fairy-tale character-wise - all the characters were either pure evil, pure good, or corrupted and hence worthless, but this was to be expected.
It's seriously the single most violent movie I've ever seen, which did confuse me a bit. It didn't really bother me, and I get that they wanted to make a fairy-tale for adults, but did it really need to be more sadistically and graphically violent than Saving Private Ryan?
Was Ofelia intended to be a Christ figure? I know I seem to be on a Christ-figure run here, but again the symbolism seemed fairly clear to me... child of supernatural beings sent to Earth, no Earthly father, who faces three temptations and then dies painfully to save others... in a cross shape.
Any thoughts?
The overall plotline was great, fairly clear but still with plenty of twists and turns. The overlapping reality/fantasy stuff was quite interesting, and of course as always with films of this type we're left uncertain as to whether or not the fantasy bits were real at all. Of course, the entire thing was a fairy-tale character-wise - all the characters were either pure evil, pure good, or corrupted and hence worthless, but this was to be expected.
It's seriously the single most violent movie I've ever seen, which did confuse me a bit. It didn't really bother me, and I get that they wanted to make a fairy-tale for adults, but did it really need to be more sadistically and graphically violent than Saving Private Ryan?
Was Ofelia intended to be a Christ figure? I know I seem to be on a Christ-figure run here, but again the symbolism seemed fairly clear to me... child of supernatural beings sent to Earth, no Earthly father, who faces three temptations and then dies painfully to save others... in a cross shape.
Any thoughts?