I was super excited for ‘Pan’; as I love the incarnations of the ‘Peter Pan’ stories, whether it’s the famous Disney animated feature, the 2003 live-action film from Universal Pictures, or even the ‘Once Upon A Time’ version of Peter Pan, taking it from a dark perspective. The teaser trailer was incredibly well produced and with all these factors, as well as being a huge fan of film versions of these popular fairy-tale stories, results in being my seventh most anticipated film of 2015, but will go down as the film that disappointed me the most.

 

‘Pan’ is directed by Joe Wright, who has directed some incredible films, with ‘Hanna’ being among my favourites.

 

The film is about Peter (Levi Miller), an orphan boy, who one night gets taken by pirates, and finds himself at Neverland, ruled by the vicious pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman).

 

‘Pan’ is a retelling of the famous ‘Peter Pan’ story, however taking it towards a new direction, which is bold and I really loved, seeing Peter and Hook becoming friends – instead of being rivals that we’ve known from the other versions of ‘Peter Pan’ – which is a refreshing change, however, the story has faults that can’t be overlooked.

 

The film has too much going on, the visuals has mixed results, with most times being quite visually appealing to watch, other times is extremely noticeable as sometimes looks rushed.

 

Some story elements come and go, e.g. the fairies and the mermaids, and the story gets lost in the mix of this style over substance flick.

 

However, there are moments of brilliance somewhere shuffled in the film’s stuffed narrative, e.g. Blackbeard’s confrontation with Peter, however, most times becomes silly and extremely laughable – although, there are so jokes that are quite hilarious, but is very little sprinkled in this nearly 2 hour film.

 

I was trying to have fun with the film – as that’s what I was expecting from the film – however, in the end, it frustrated me more than making me smile.

 

‘Pan’ could have been a solid family film – that we’ve gotten so little of from this year, while the kids may enjoy the film, parents will be pleased by the film’s dramatic and action-packed moments.

 

Score: 3.4/10