Depressing in its hollowness.

All horror, no seduction. Any scene containing Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe stands head and shoulders above the rest because both organically feel part of this world, both feel like they have some emotional grounding and the camera is responding to that. Everyone else feels adrift and oddly observational. Take, for instance, Thomas's journey to the castle; he becomes a stiff puppet to be scared, not a vessel for an audience to empathise with and feel his fear. A pity because the production design and score are fantastic and there's some real gravitas and energy to those climactic scenes.

Hands down the film of the year.
I never anticipated that all of the unanimous praise (reaching fanboy levels of excitement) could possibly be justified, but it is.
Alfonso Cuaron has somehow managed to craft a gritty, survival film into a work of astounding visual beauty.
There were numerous moments that caused that frisson of inspiration when all the hairs on my body stood on end.

I walked out of the cinema and wanted to walk straight back in.