MovieChat Forums > El laberinto del fauno (2007) Discussion > Visually impressive, but I had one big p...

Visually impressive, but I had one big problem with this movie.

posted 8 years ago by Hellspawn92
3 replies | jump to latest

Characters do too many foolish things for me to be compelled by what is happening.

Leaving the antibiotics in the woods after all the doctor risked to get them, using the key to get to the food (which obviously shows the resistance has help inside the house), eating the grapes, leaving I don't remember what object on the table for the villain to see...

Too many character actions were unrealistically foolish and clearly written in to propell the plot. It made it unbelievable and took me out of the movie.

The world was great, the characters ruined it for me.

[–] maximwessel 8 years ago

Characters making little mistakes in the heat of the moment makes a movie more believable and engaging for me.

Look at the Hobbit movies for example. All of the fight scenes in that movie were just an endless string of impossible manuevers and amazing coincidences, nothing suspends my disbelief more than thinking "If any part of this trick went wrong the whole quest would have failed".

I remember in the first two Mad Max films the bad guys make stupid decisions as well and some of them even die accidentaly. This makes a movie much more compelling for me.

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[–] masuka-fan 8 years ago

I don't remember about the antibiotics or the key, but Ofelia leaving the chalk on the table seemed a realistic error for a child in a panic to make. As for the grapes, this was right after she had been denied supper, and also I got the impression that the feast had a charm of temptation on it as well. She seemed entranced.

[–] drakkar 8 years ago

.. Ofelia leaving the chalk on the table seemed a realistic error for a child in a panic to make.

Or she put it there deliberately, for Vidal to find it. Princess Moanna/Ofelia needed Vidal to follow her to the labyrinth. The princess wanted him to kill Ofelia by the labyrinth so she could get back to her realm.
Why did she count the drops when drugging Vidal? Because she only wanted to slow him down when he followed her. She even stopped and waited for him so he wouldn't lose sight of her. If the aim was to knock him out she would give him the whole lot.
Vidal crushing the chalk also shows us that it is real, and not only part of Ofelia's imagination. Hence the magic also is real: The faun gave the magical chalk to her so she could draw magical doors/portals; she used it to get from her guarded prison to Vidal's study (the resistance discovers the chalk "door" on the wall when they come to release her).

For the heart life is simple. It beats as long as it can.