Joe Wright is far and away one of my favorite contemporary directors, and most of his films—Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, Anna Karenina—are ones I revisit regularly with enormous enthusiasm. Pan is his first mega-budget bid to ignite an action-fantasy franchise for a top studio (Warner Bros.), and it is definitely his most problematic and minor film to date, though it is still entertaining and nearly entirely undeserving of the critical lambasting inflicted upon it.

A public-domain prequel, it is designed in a rather mercenary way as a superhero-style origin story for Peter Pan, envisioned here as an orphan (charismatic and fresh-faced Levi Miller) in London during the Blitz. He is desperate to uncover his mysterious history and parentage and receives the chance when, in an exciting nocturnal set piece finding the Royal Air Force pursuing a flying pirate ship, he is spirited against his will to Neverland. In this strange and colorful land, he becomes a pixie-dust-mining slave laborer for the nefarious buccaneer Blackbeard (a flamboyantly malevolent Hugh Jackman) and encounters a coterie of recognizable characters and places.

Pan's shortcomings, which are considerable, but not fatal, lie in its hectic, at times underdeveloped screenplay. For instance, it rather tritely adheres to a chosen-one arc. I for one prefer to regard Peter as a figure both elevated and isolated by his inability to grow old or lead a more conventional life. There should be an element of enigmatic melancholy at play within the character. He should perhaps be both romantic and a tad haunting. (Consider how original heroine Wendy Darling ultimately transcends him and his never-ending adolescence, even if she does not forget their adventure together.) I am not as excited by an ultra-literal Peter for whom flight and heroism are prophesied and even genetic, though the quality of the performance delivered by Miller compensates for the slightly stale trajectory. He is, I suspect, a major discovery with a bright future.

The film also unfortunately fails to see one of its central ideas through to its natural conclusion: an opening preamble notes friends can become enemies and enemies friends, but Peter and James Hook, played very broadly and a tad oddly by Garrett Hedlund as a type of country-music Han Solo, are firmly and warmly on the same side at the end, and there is no sense of how they could become lifelong foes. The creative team must have saved this dynamic for the hoped-for-but-now-improbable sequel.

The film is, however, a sensational visual and aural experience. Wright is an inventive and playful stylist even without the benefit of an exemplary screenplay, and he populates every scene with pop-art flourishes and unexpected, at times anachronistic detail. Macabre pirates abduct orphans from their beds at night by descending through the ceiling with the fluidity of circus performers. A Nirvana song is transformed into a thunderous call to arms by a legion of miners and pirates. Winged fish and fairy-tale pterodactyls soar above giant crocodiles, multicultural natives who explode into rainbow-colored clouds of dust when they die, and an electric-blue mermaid lagoon. In its second half, Pan downright sprints from action sequence to action sequence, and they are elaborate, forceful, a touch whimsical, and at times more menacing than expected for a film with a PG rating.

B

Wow. A B from David for a Joe Wright film is equavalent to a C-/D+ from anyone else for the film.

Oh and no mention of Rooney Mara in the review? That i telling of the role, though, I guess.

That irked me as well because save for that throaway final wink-wink phrase you hear in the film, there is no hint WHATSOEVER of potential animosity between the two. I thought the film would at least sow some seeds, but no, nada.

The fact Hook is also completely unrecognizable as Hook does not help. There is zero trace of the typical understanding of the character: an uptight, bloviating, well-educated-and-tailored man out of place among the filthy and rambunctious pirates he leads.

Oh, and I thought Rooney Mara did well, though this is obviously not going to be a definitive moment in what I am sure will be an illustrious career. But she is solid. Sexy. A few impressive stunts. And I am completely ambivalent toward the racial controversy. If anything, Wright's idea of a multicultural native tribe seems a clever way to sidestep the fact J. M. Barrie conceived of red-skinned "picaninnies."

Hook here is firmly in Indiana Jones territory. Though Hedlund is likable.

Mara kind of felt ouf of place for me. Not because of the racial aspect, but because this just seems so different from the career path she has taken... Just like it will be weird seeing Mia Wasikowska back as Alice next year.

I have mixed feelings re: Hedlund here. He does have charisma and a strong physical presence, but at times becomes a tad overbearing with the whole oh-golly, I'll-be-darned, what-a-handsome-devil-and-rogue angle. ("WE'RE SAILING NOW!") It is as if he is emulating how James Stewart might have played Indiana Jones in 1946 and then mixing in a bit of John Turturro in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, and I alternated between finding it fun and too artificial.

I wish the film went further with the Baz Luhrmann-style musical anachronisms. The use of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is completely random and hugely cinematic. The sheer enormity of the scene sent a bit of a chill down my spine, and it is a perfect way to introduce Blackbeard. Even reminded me a bit of Immortan Joe's opening sermon in Mad Max: Fury Road.

I loved the use of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in Moulin Rouge! In Pan, it was cringeworthy.

This scene was great and part of why I dug the film.

Agreed though that Hook makes zero sense here considering his future - they really should have just gave him a different name.

Indeed. And maybe position Hook as a secondary antagonist on Blackbeard's crew.

A colleague suggested that now there can be an inofficial Peter Pan trilogy consisting from this, the 2003 live action film and Spielberg's Hook, hehe.

Ha, true.

I did end up enjoying this more than the recent Disney live adaptations (Alice in Wonderland, Oz, Maleficent, and Cinderellla). It wasn't afraid to be a bit dark at times and quite a bit more funny.

I loved:
-Hugh Jackman's rules written on a pig's ear
-The imagery of the pirates stealing the kids via bungee jump cords
-How the pirates were more like scary clowns

Basically everything about the pirates and Hugh Jackman were great.

This film did suffer from some awful editing (or at least action shots where you would lose complete track of what was going on).

IMDb says an actress named Leni Zieglmeier played Wendy Darling in this film. I wonder if this is an alternate ending. It could have used a stronger final scene than the, 'What could go ever go wrong with our friendship?' nudge-nudge conclusion.

I thought the use of Smells Like Teen Spirit was pretty cool, although it was kinda random.

I thought the film was (mostly) visually pleasing, and the kid who was Pan was pretty good, but it really suffers from poor storytelling.

B, I liked the creativity, direction, art direction, cinematography of certain sequences. This is one of the first movies I remember seeing in 2D where I felt offput by it not being in 3D, as certain scenes were too obviously filmed for 3D. Sum is not as great as its parts.

It's not an outright disaster but also not nearly as good as it could have been given the director and cast involved. It's visually stunning and there are quite a few inventive sequences, and I did enjoy the performances from Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and especially Levi Miller, who is a find as Pan for sure and is incredibly charming here. Garrett Hedlund is miscast and also the film does nothing to signify this character has anything to do with the Captain Hook we all know. The script is kind of a mess and it's blatantly obvious they were trying to make this a new Harry Potter esque franchise as the setups are almost identical. Also, the musical sequences are horrible and completely out of place. B-

I personally thought it was a giant, ugly, mess with almost no redeeming qualities. The ending was also quite terrible. What a disappointment because I was really looking forward to this one.

D

Wow. This was terrible. I did like Garret Hedlund and Levi Miller. Both gave pretty fun performances. but otherwise this was a really bad movie. Also features some of the worst CGI and green screen scenes in recent memory.

It's kind of hard to believe Joe Wright is behind this.

I didn't think it was that bad just forgettable. I enjoyed the perfromances from Jackman, Miller, and even Hedlund who does the charming thing well eventhough I never really bought this guy becoming THE Captain Hook. It also had some fun action sequences and nice visuals, but other than that it's a very by the numbers fantasy/adventure flick.

Pan

It wasn't terrible. The production design is top-notch and some of the ideas are refreshing (flying pirate ships, water bubbles in mid air, charging water with memories etc.), but the film does not sync well together, often being too corny, staged and 'out there' to really impress. It is neat how if a sequel is not made it will seamlessly flow into 1992's Hook. The standout performance was Kathy Burke as the hateful head nun of the orphanage, Mother Barnabas. A solid but sadly underused character actress. Levi Miller (Pan) wasn't bad - I often enjoyed his Artful Dodger-esque performance, but at times he also felt off. Rooney Mara was useless, and Adeel Akhtar wasn't this great supporting character that they expected (I much prefer Bob Hoskins). Garret Hedlund gave a forced charismatic performance. Then comes Hugh Jackman; I guess he was fine, but as with the film in general he was just too extreme to really fit. He was introduced to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which is one of those refreshing ideas that I actually enjoyed, but I am not sure if it fit well with the Temple of Doom/Fury Road-esque savagery of the pirates. I suppose overall the film doesn't fit well with the family entertainment formula. The constant one-liners are a low point, as are the visual effects, but the film is a non-stop swashbuckling adventure from the very beginning. Though I was a bit pissed how little Peter actually flies.

If you're in two minds, watch Hook.

C

The first fifteen minutes are quite good. A big budget movie about troubled/trouble-making orphans during the Blitz is right up Joe Wright's alley. And he proved that all Hitler needed to win the war was a flying pirate ship.

Trying to mash Avatar with Harry Potter is not up his alley though. The movie becomes a mess when they hit Neverland and never gets good again. Oh well.

Seems a pattern with Peter Pan films. The part outside Neverland is always best.

Meh at best. I liked the presence of Hook, but he didn't fit the character. I did not like the grunge songs being sang. The visuals were nice, and Mara was good. I thought Peter was all over the place, great in parts, not good in others. Very inconsistent film, imo. Oh well.

C

This was awful. One of the worst movies of 2015. It pains me to say that as a I love Joe Wright.

4/10 (D+)