Poor Peter! Such an unfortunate child! But he is to be redeemed, and his adventure begins...
Flying, floating,and falling, faaalling,faaaaalling!! There was so much of that in PAN. Maybe too much. Lots of fighting and persecution: pirates vs. children, pirates vs.natives, pirates vs. fairies. At first the movie felt slow. We meet Peter in an orphanage, surrounded by a world war II setting,and horrid nuns.
I love Joe Wright's movies, (Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Atonement) they are filled with drama and wonder. Perhaps precisely this was Joe Wright's intention with PAN: to show Peter PAN's dark nightmarish origins instead of all the sunny and colorful happy-happy portrayed in other versions of Peter Pan.
I'm giving it a 7 because this movie will satisfy the fantasy/drama genre fans, but as an all-audiences movie, it didn't meet its full potential. It is entertaining for adults, for the most part. It might be scary for children.
One of the problems in this movie is that it feels like a stage, as if watching a theater play. This is especially noticeable in the second part of the film - with the tribal territory.
Although a very energetic film, I was taken aback by the brutality, children slavery, killing of children (being kicked into an endless pit), the prevalent role of a merciless pirate (of course brilliantly performed by Hugh Jackman), and the subject of destructive mining (which exhausted the fairy dust gems). Was all that really necessary? I guess the writers wanted to emphasize the ugliness that Peter had to live through before he could discover happiness.
Nonetheless, I just kept wanting greater enchantment and heart. For instance, why were the fairies, which are quintessential of fantasy and magic, reduced to just sparkles? It's so different from our classic view of the fairies in Disney's animated Peter Pan.
More things I wondered about...What was Black Beard's motivation? Eventually midpoint in the movie, in a subtle scene, we figure it out. Jackman's performance is good, but his character seems too wicked for a children's movie.
Not funny, just fantastic! Hook is the only one that shows bits of humor.Clearly the film was not conceived to elicit laughter. It was conceived to elicit empathy for the misfortune of the children and Peter. But it could have had been more fun. It did however keep me on the edge-of-my-seat: with all the perils and troubles chasing Peter.
I just kept searching for that emotional connection between the characters. There is however, one emotional thread that keeps the movie together: the child's eagerness to find his mother. "You will find me in this world, or another " was a written message from his mother. That's Peter's motivation. Eventually Peter gets assigned the title of "chosen" one, the savior of the fairies. Will he find his mother at the end? I won't reveal it here. But the ending scenes were my favorite: these had heart and charm and magic...
The fantasy element is undeniable astonishing – those flying ships and the different worlds they go to are a feast to watch. But sometimes it felt too repetitive. For sure,there is lots of action. Every second of the movie is filled with adventure, haphazard adventure I would say. Peter is always being chased by something or someone. Giant birds, crocs, pirates, etc., are there to put Peter's life in constant danger. There's a mermaid rescuing scene that is quite magical.
About the music, that Nirvana "teen spirits" chant was creepy! Maybe that was the intention exactly... What can you expect from enslaved children working in a mine for a wicked pirate?
Overall, the actors did their best with the script they had. They put their heart in their performances. Black Beard is Peter's nemesis. Peter is the determined boy who, with the help of a mining runaway, Hook and the natives' princess (Mara), sets on a quest to survive and find his mother. This native princess confused me-—I thought she was Peter's mother! She looked like a foreigner among the natives. But that was an intentional casting choice, they wanted to portray a multicultural native tribe.
In the end, I walked out of the theater thinking "that was okay." But I had no feeling of excitement or wonder or joy. It was an average dark fantasy movie experience. Worth watching once. Although I will caution parents-- I think some scenes might not be appropriate for very young children...
Flying, floating,and falling, faaalling,faaaaalling!! There was so much of that in PAN. Maybe too much. Lots of fighting and persecution: pirates vs. children, pirates vs.natives, pirates vs. fairies. At first the movie felt slow. We meet Peter in an orphanage, surrounded by a world war II setting,and horrid nuns.
I love Joe Wright's movies, (Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Atonement) they are filled with drama and wonder. Perhaps precisely this was Joe Wright's intention with PAN: to show Peter PAN's dark nightmarish origins instead of all the sunny and colorful happy-happy portrayed in other versions of Peter Pan.
I'm giving it a 7 because this movie will satisfy the fantasy/drama genre fans, but as an all-audiences movie, it didn't meet its full potential. It is entertaining for adults, for the most part. It might be scary for children.
One of the problems in this movie is that it feels like a stage, as if watching a theater play. This is especially noticeable in the second part of the film - with the tribal territory.
Although a very energetic film, I was taken aback by the brutality, children slavery, killing of children (being kicked into an endless pit), the prevalent role of a merciless pirate (of course brilliantly performed by Hugh Jackman), and the subject of destructive mining (which exhausted the fairy dust gems). Was all that really necessary? I guess the writers wanted to emphasize the ugliness that Peter had to live through before he could discover happiness.
Nonetheless, I just kept wanting greater enchantment and heart. For instance, why were the fairies, which are quintessential of fantasy and magic, reduced to just sparkles? It's so different from our classic view of the fairies in Disney's animated Peter Pan.
More things I wondered about...What was Black Beard's motivation? Eventually midpoint in the movie, in a subtle scene, we figure it out. Jackman's performance is good, but his character seems too wicked for a children's movie.
Not funny, just fantastic! Hook is the only one that shows bits of humor.Clearly the film was not conceived to elicit laughter. It was conceived to elicit empathy for the misfortune of the children and Peter. But it could have had been more fun. It did however keep me on the edge-of-my-seat: with all the perils and troubles chasing Peter.
I just kept searching for that emotional connection between the characters. There is however, one emotional thread that keeps the movie together: the child's eagerness to find his mother. "You will find me in this world, or another " was a written message from his mother. That's Peter's motivation. Eventually Peter gets assigned the title of "chosen" one, the savior of the fairies. Will he find his mother at the end? I won't reveal it here. But the ending scenes were my favorite: these had heart and charm and magic...
The fantasy element is undeniable astonishing – those flying ships and the different worlds they go to are a feast to watch. But sometimes it felt too repetitive. For sure,there is lots of action. Every second of the movie is filled with adventure, haphazard adventure I would say. Peter is always being chased by something or someone. Giant birds, crocs, pirates, etc., are there to put Peter's life in constant danger. There's a mermaid rescuing scene that is quite magical.
About the music, that Nirvana "teen spirits" chant was creepy! Maybe that was the intention exactly... What can you expect from enslaved children working in a mine for a wicked pirate?
Overall, the actors did their best with the script they had. They put their heart in their performances. Black Beard is Peter's nemesis. Peter is the determined boy who, with the help of a mining runaway, Hook and the natives' princess (Mara), sets on a quest to survive and find his mother. This native princess confused me-—I thought she was Peter's mother! She looked like a foreigner among the natives. But that was an intentional casting choice, they wanted to portray a multicultural native tribe.
In the end, I walked out of the theater thinking "that was okay." But I had no feeling of excitement or wonder or joy. It was an average dark fantasy movie experience. Worth watching once. Although I will caution parents-- I think some scenes might not be appropriate for very young children...