Pan

The much anticipated movie Pan hit theatres this month and it has been met with some cynical reviews. So in order to see if critics got it right with their rather harsh comments about how Pan has really gone down the pan I went to see it for myself…

Director Joe Wright’s prequel to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is a reimagining of a younger Peter and much younger and handsomer, James Hook; who is yet to have lost his hand to a hungry croc and cross over to the dark side. In this retelling of the tale we have all come to love, we see both Peter and Hook come together as two unlikely friends who take on villainous pirate and child snatcher, Blackbeard. A rogue with a penchant for the theatrical, Blackbeard’s reign of terror does somewhat miss the mark, instead lending itself more to the creepy unsettling eccentric side of a man consumed with narcissism and greed.

As Pan and Hook strive to safeguard the future of Neverland, Wright takes us on an adventure into a world of magic; a world in which adventure and danger lie behind every door. And while some have branded Wrights attempts as old fashioned and accused him of ripping off ‘better’ fairy tales, there is no doubt that if you like daring cinematic craft that Pan will deliver. Bungee jumping pirates pick lost boys from the their orphanage beds, flying pirate ships combat spitfires, clouds of fish hang in suspended bubbles in the Neverland skies and battles between pirates and tribesmen end in colourful crashing crescendos.

Pan is a visual spectacle and one has to wonder what Wright was thinking when he dreamt this one up, but for all the razzle dazzle it does lack some real gritty drama. And while it offers up glimpses, it could have delved deeper into the darkness of J. M. Barrie’s tale. Perhaps the most compelling scene is the first meeting of Peter and Blackbeard, an odd encounter charged with menace and melancholy. “Childhood ain’t so jolly,” Blackbeard tells him, “it’s frightening.” But it’s here that the real threat of Blackbeard ends and he once again slips into a parody of a pantomime dame.

The verdict is that in many ways Pan does feel like a kids film made by a big kid, and while some might slate it for this very purpose I can’t help but believe that, that is just as it should be. Peter Pan represents the kid in us all; regardless of age or where we come from we can all dream and wonder. We can all live out fantastical worlds in our own imaginations and those who dismiss Wrights story as a pointless story of childlike proportions I say to you: perhaps you have grown up just a little too much and is it not spectacular that Wright never will? Oh the cleverness of him.