Despite situating a straight-forward and predictable plot against the political background of an underground struggle against the Fascist Franco regime, 'Pan's Labyrinth' felt very ordinary and with caricatures of, say, the evil Fascist officers, the leftist brave guerillas, etc.
Utterly predictable, utterly mundane with meaningless trials. A waste of a good two hours. Avoid.
Addendum
I suppose as a narrative, 'Pan's Labyrinth' was pretty much devoid of anything interesting being absolutely predictable and linear. As an allegory, there was more to offer. The little girl who eventually died, could symbolise the loss of innocence during the Spanish Civil War and the lapse into a fantastic world of a forgotten Iberian-Celtic past.
The baby brother could, I suppose, could represent the youth of a new Spain. The struggle for the baby between the two factions and the eventually refusal of the victorious Republican guerillas to allow the cruel, Fascist father to be remembered, could also express the yearning for the past to be forgotten. I was probably reading too much into this while I was in bed last night.
The summary executions and the refusal to take prisoners of the two factions was not unexpected. The brutality of it all.
I did have high expectations for this Spanish language effort.
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