Pan (2015)

Genres

Adventure, Fantasy

Director

Joe Wright

Country

USA

Cast

Levi Miller, Hugh Jackman, Garret Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Adeel Akhtar, Nonso Anozie, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Burke, Lewis MacDougall, Jack Charles, Cara Delevigne, Na Tae-joo, Bronson Webb, Kurt Egyiawan, Paul Kaye, Emerald Fennell

Storyline

12-year-old Peter (Levi Miller) is spirited away to the magical world of Neverland where he must face pirate leader Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) in order to become the hero that will always be known as Peter Pan.

Opinion

I was pretty excited when Pan hit the theatres because of its storyline. It wasn't going to be another adaptation of the story I already knew, so I really wanted to see it. Then I read some reviews and my interest in the film dropped immediately. It sounded pretty awful. Now that I've seen it, I can only confirm that it is pretty awful.

The story was incredibly simple and yet they managed to make it incredibly contrived, and as it moves forward it's more than clear that it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It sounded interesting, but it ended up being beyond boring and unengaging. Also, it's pretty stupid right from the start when the narrator immediately spoils the film by saying that Peter Pan and Captain Hook once used to be friends.

But that's not even the worst thing the film does. It provides some backstory to Peter Pan, by telling us why he is the chosen one (and for what, by the way?), how he met Tinker Bell and how he became friend with the Indians, but that's all. We don't get to know anything about Captain Hook, especially the reason why he hates Peter so much.

However, the more-than-flawed script isn't the tip of the iceberg. The special effects deserve that spot. First of all, they overused CGI. Second, it looks absolutely cheap. Some looks faker than Kim Kardashian's bottom, like all the flying scenes. Also, the colours are too vivid.

The cast is just in line with everything else. Hugh Jackman was another of the reasons I wanted to see Pan, but he alone can't save the film. There's nothing he could do with that script. Some go with the rest of the cast, from Levi Miller, who was the right cast for the role but didn't have a properly developed character, to Rooney Mara, who unfortunately found herself playing a bland princess warrior that for some unknown reason shares a romantic subplot with Captain Hook.