Set in England during World War II we find Hugh Jackman's Captain Blackbeard pulling a Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as he pays nuns to allow his men to snatch orphan children, where he takes them to Neverland in order to work in his mines (to be fair, it's never been proven that Brangelina have their children work in mines but it would explain why they have so many.) During one of these raids the Pirates steal young orphan Peter only to discover that he will one day fulfil the prophecy to defeat Captain Blackbeard.
Now the film is directed by Joe Wright who gave us Atonement and spy-thriller Hanna, and the guy really lets loose with the visuals and the choreography with some amazing set pieces, fight sequences and splashes of colour that make it feel like it's a commercial for a high definition TV. On top of that you just have Hugh Jackman chewing scenery and clearly having a ball in the role of Blackbeard as he gets the masses signing along to Nirvana and The Ramones, although it does look like "what if Hugh Jackman was a meth-addict?" Jackman's band of pirates look amazing but also look like a bunch of drag-queens who have just finished the world's biggest bender but this all just adds to the visual splendour if the film. Honestly, you cannot fault a single cast member, everyone gets into their roles, give it their all and look like they have a great time doing it as well. Even the normally wooden Garrett Hedund is a really interesting and comical James Hook and relative newcomer Levi Miller makes for an excellent Pan.
Admittedly I've never been a big advocator of 3D but if you are planning on seeing this film then 3D is the only way to go. There is so much depth to the scenery and so many layers all interlocking with one another that 3D just enhances the experience. I often find the 3D effect often wears off after 20 minutes but it really sticks with you until the end with this film. The film is ultimately aimed at a child audience so it is easy to assume that the character of Peter Pan is unadaptable and outdated, looking at the film from an adults eyes you would be right, but kids are sure to love the thrills, the music and the colours that this film offers.
Although the film is not without its faults: some of the scenes border of pantomime and this isn't helped by the continual foreshadowing that goes on throughout the film. From Hedlund carrying a hook for no good reason, to lots of suggestions that he might loose his hand to really cringe-worthy lines like "you and me Hook are going to be friends forever!" Even though there are some great visuals, there is also some really questionable CGI. There are flying/falling scenes where the body just doesn't move right, arms bend in places where they are not supposed to and there are some jaw-droppingly bad CGI colourful skeleton birds. I mean my jaw literally dropped when I saw them because I thought to myself, you can't seriously be putting something so shite in such a big budget movie.
The film still features the noble savages but instead of racist Indians like in the Disney version you have every other ethnicity from Aboriginals to Chinese Acrobats to Pakistani Indians to Malaysians to the American Girl With The Dragon Tattoo... So that's, less racist... I guess.
One of the other big issues, and this is common for these "prequel-type" movies is that often the things that made you love the original story so much are held off to the very end and sometimes not even shown at all because of the "we're sure we'll make a sequel" approach to film franchising nowadays. Also, much like Maleficent there's a strong desire to make a famously reviled villain be viewed as a misunderstood tragic figure, which is fine but let's face it, it's going to get predictable and boring after a while.
But when all is said and done it's important to remember that this film is aimed squarely at kids so the target market will certainly feel satisfied come the end, adults on the other hand are just not going to feel that their needs are getting met.
Pan gets 3 out of Five Stars (or 3 out of Five surly drag-queen pirates)
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