FilmSnobReviews

Title: Pan
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller, Rooney Mara
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins

What It Is: A contemporary (ish) retelling of the tale of the boy who could fly. Peter (Miller) is a young orphan whose been at his orphanage since a little after birth. When he is swept off to Neverland, a land filled with Pirates and Pixum he is introduced to Blackbeard (Jackman) James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) as well as the local tribe from Neverland. In this newest version of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, you will believe a boy can fly.

What We Think: Do you recall how I just said you would believe a boy could fly? I lied! You can’t believe it because the CGI is terrible. Not only does it not impress there is just far too much of it. There’s an odd decision to have the pirates use rock songs as chants, in particular, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”. What the hell were they thinking with that? Also, as good an actress as Rooney Mara is why is she Tiger Lily? Were there no Native American actresses available?What was Garrett Hedlund doing with his performance? He sounds like an idiot, of that I am sure.

Our Grade: D, Oh my god this movie had the potential to be good, instead all of that potential was sadly squandered. Poor CGI that looked unfinished, an awful script, and wooden acting all weighed down this already far too weighed idea. It’s not been a good year for the lost boys. With the live Peter Pan from last year and then this thing it might be time to rest this story for a while. For Joe Wright Atonement this is not. Hell this is not even as good as The Soloist and that is just damn disheartening.