In a movie industry plagued with sequels and reboots, Hollywood brings us with yet again another re-telling of Peter Pan with the movie "Pan." We have heard of the story of Peter Pan numerous times in various incarnations in the past, but what separates this film from the other versions is that it takes us back to the origins of the boy who never grew up and his rival Captain Hook.
This movie has a pretty talented cast. Hugh Jackman as the villain Blackbeard was so well acted that when you are watching him on screen you forget that it is Jackman. Probably one of the most memorable scenes of the film is Blackbeard’s first entrance in the film. As the crowd on the ship is waiting for Blackbeard to come aboard, they all start singing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit," in unison.
Another stand out performance was that of thirteen-year old Levi Miller. The Australian born actor did an incredible job in his big screen debut as Peter Pan. He acting ability in this film shows that he has a long career ahead of him.
Rooney Mara, who played Tiger Lily, also gave a knockout performance in this film. She played the ultimate female bad-ass. One of the coolest scenes in the film was Lily and Blackbeard's fight scene. Not only was it nicely filmed, it was a nice change from the typical heroine characters we see females play a lot in movies nowadays.
However, not all the performances were solid. Garrett Hedlund, who played Captain Hook gave one of the weaker performances of the movie. It was almost as if he didn’t know if he wanted to be a serious or comedic actor, thus making it hard to take the actor seriously.
Embark on an incredible adventure! #PanMove is now playing. Get tickets now: http://t.co/4oMqugs0dM pic.twitter.com/KZhahcWWCY
— PAN (@panmovie) October 9, 2015
The movie starts off very intriguingly, giving us an emotional back story to why Peter’s mother left him as a baby. Following immediately are Peter’s beginnings as an orphan in London during World War ll. It was pretty entertaining to see Peter when he was just a young boy and not yet the hero we all know him to be.
Aside from the great storytelling of the movie in the beginning, director Joe Wright does incredible job with the visuals. The bombing of London by the Germans in the beginning of the movie looked so visually stunning that it felt almost as if you were witnessing it in real life.
However after about an hour into the movie, the film takes a turn for the worse, mainly because of the confusing relationship between Peter and Captain Hook. For anyone who is familiar with the older Peter Pan movies, you would expect these two to be arch-enemies. However in this movie the two are portrayed as close friends throughout the entirety of the movie, with Peter even saving Hook’s life at one point. It is almost as if Wright was trying to make Hook a hero alongside Peter, instead of the enemy.
Overall, the movie was solid, but with a current 22% on Rotten Tomatoes and being considered a financial flop, maybe this is a sign that people have had enough with the Peter Pan retellings.
Reach the reporter at obie.dieke@asu.edu, or on Twitter @20crowndancer14
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