Pan Review

Peter Pan has been part of our culture for over 100 years. The classic story of a boy that never grows up that had its start on the theatre stage, which was adapted to the famous book by J.M. Barrie has had dozens of adaptations from cartoons, book series, references, and of course movies.

Quite a bit of these movies are very popular. My personal favorite is Hook from 1991 starring Dustin Hoffman, the late Bob Hoskins, and the late Robin Williams.

This year, we have what Hollywood loves to do with long standing characters and give them a prequel... And that desperately needs to stop.

First let's talk about the things they got right.

This is a very beautiful movie. The visuals are just stunning easily the best looking world in a movie this year and the best look for Neverland.

Also have to admit the acting is pretty on point for almost everyone. The one person who had a odd time with his acting was Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard. I know Jackman is a great actor, but his acting choices in this was far too cartoony and is reminiscent of an evil Jack Sparrow. Besides him, the acting is good.

Little details I like in this movie such as Fairy Dust is considered the fountain of youth, which makes sense as to why Peter doesn't age, but sadly with no real payoff.

Things I didn't like:
So much fan service in this movie! If you watched the show Gotham, its big problem is that there's so much winks to the camera for stuff we know will happen. Prequels in general have this issue, but I think Pan is a big offender.

The fairies were introduced late in the movie and took forever to attack the pirates, which didn't make sense, since the pirates were attacking them.

People exploded in bright colored smoke.... 'Nuff said.

Pirates and Nuns working together to kidnap children was just bizarre and had no resolution.

Tiger Lily was cool, since she was useful and had something to do, but it bugs that she's 1. White and 2. An adult.

We keep hearing about Peter's mom all the time, and only know about her through tree flashbacks and water flashbacks. Why do you need two different devices?

All this I can forgiven, if they told how the Pan vs Hook feud began. Again; ground work was laid, but no payoff.

By the end Pan and Hook should be at their full potential. Pan can fly, fight, has lost boys, Tinkerbell, and a fairy army. Hook has his ship and that's it. No crew, he's not a pirate, can't sword fight, and worst of all has BOTH his hands! Unacceptable!

This had a lot of buildup and fan service, but it was a very subpar movie. It could've been better by just little things.
If anything it reminds me of another high fantasy movie that had a prequel: Oz the Great and Powerful. That one had plenty of its own issues, but they're pretty similar.

It's worth waiting for the $4 theatre or rent from the library, but certainly not top dollar. At least it kept my interest up and I cared about everyone, Fantastic Four couldn't even do that for me.

If you want a Peter Pan movie, literally every other version is worth watching. If you want a good prequel for Peter Pan, check out the Sci-FI channel miniseries Neverland. Much better, and you can find it at some video stores.