Pan

Being that Joe Wright is one of my favourite directors, I have more or less been stalking this film since its announcement with Mr Wright at the helm. I literally remember when they were doing the casting call to find their Pan. Now, approximately two years later, we have the end result. But was is worth the wait?

Our titular character (Levi Miller) seems to be living a relatively cheerful and mischievous life despite the harshness of his reality; Abandoned by his mother, and living in an orphanage under a cruel and highly unattractive mistress during World War II.

He is soon taken out of one dire situation and placed slap bang into the middle of another, kidnapped and transported to Neverland, Pan get his first sighting of Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). Extravagantly dressed amid the drab clothing of those around him, he rouses spirits with songs and promises (Are you not entertained?!), before forcing thousands of boys and men to mine for Fairy Dust for him - which they just do, no questions asked.

It is here that Pan meets James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) together they manage to escape Blackbeard's camp with little more than luck and happy thoughts. Hook wants off the Island of Neverland, whilst Pan wants to stay and search for his mother, who left a note with him as a baby, saying that she would see him again, in this world or another.

I won't go into to much depth of Tiger Lilly (Rooney Mara) and her Holi Colour Run Tribe that live in the forest except to say it's a wonder they have managed to survive a war and continued rebelliance with Blackbeard and his merry men.

Mostly with this film I have questions;

There were three major pitfalls for me in the movie, the first was the lack of any proper explanation.
There look to be well of five thousand boys and men that Blackbeard has presumably kidnapped, and yet none of them have found a way to escape into the vast forest and disappear forever? Or work together to commandeer a ship and fly back home? We understand why Blackbeard wants the dust, but we don't know how he got to Neverland, as clearly you can't sail there. The man is Blackbeard for goodness sake, one of the fiercest pirates to sail the seven seas. He is a legend, sure, but that still doesn't mean he should be commandeering a flying ship in Neverland - lets not get crazy.

The second is the poor and more than slightly over the top acting from Garrett Hedlund as Hook. He sounded like a British person putting on a fake mid-western American accent, and moved about like a Scarecrow that wasn't too sure of which limb did what. This was incredibly disappointing as Hedlund had the right look and boyish charm to pass for a young Hook, still full of hope and innocence. I have seen him in various other roles, and he is an okay actor, which leads me to believe that he was directed to act in that manner.

Finally, yes, we all know the story of Peter Pan, there was no need to make so many not so cryptic references like; "So pirates are afraid of Mermaid Lagoon?" "Because of crocodiles." "[Hook quickly sticks his hand out of the water]" and "Always be friends, Hook." "Always. It can't possibly go wrong." That kind of stuff is usually funny, I won't deny I'm an advocate for an easy laugh, but for some reason it just didn't work and became more cringing with each new remark.

All in all, although this may have been an origin story for Peter Pan, I was left with more questions than answers, and feel that as an "Origin Story" it should have answered not just the question of where Peter Pan came from, but of Neverland too. Who knows, perhaps such questions were meant to be answered in a sequel, for which they left a wide opening at the end of the film, but if my viewing was all we were basing it off of, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Sorry Mr Wright, I love 90% of your work, but for you, this movie was just wrong,