I’m tempted to chuck this in the waste of time category and include some spoilers here… although the image above is already spoilerish. But who doesn’t know what happens in this movie in advance (pretty much all the way to the end).

Some amazing effects and ‘set design’ obviously, coupled with some heart-breaking acting performances (if you’re in the right state of mind for that kind of thing – which I unfortunately wasn’t on that day).

Expected something better from Juan Antonio Bayona, but I guess he didn’t have much to work with and had to concentrate on the visuals instead and try to get what he could from the actors, who under these circumstances were ok I suppose. None of them were particularly memorable, and Naomi Watts was at times a bit hard to watch, Ewan McGregor over the top at times; the kids were pretty good mostly though.

The main negative criticism really is to do with how the story deals with what actually happened, and considering this can really affect your opinion of this movie. Just so you know.