"Pan"

Welcome! I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving weekend, I got the “privilege” of going to see Pan. So, this is what I am here to review. So, let's begin my review of one of the biggest bombs of 2015.

Background:

I regret to inform you that I didn't have time to do any research on this movie. So, I guess you can hit me with a frying “Pan”.

Plot:

Now, as you know, this is a prequel. It is about Peter Pan first going to Neverland and, for whatever reason, befriending Captain Hook and trying to find who his mother is (it's as predictable as it gets).

Opinion:

Now for my opinion; This movie suffers the terrible curse of being a prequel! And, personally, I don't really understand the point in prequels. Did anybody finish watching “Peter Pan Live!” last year and say; “Gee, that was good...I wonder what happened before.”? Well, apparently WB did because we got this movie. Now, don't get me wrong – I don't hate ALL prequels. Some prequels are good like “Oz: The Great and Powerful”. Of course, there are other prequels that are pretty bad like the “Star Wars” ones. Now, I know you are waited with baited breath to find out what category this falls into...Well, unfortunately it falls into “Star Wars” category.

First off, let's get the good stuff out of the way. The visual effects were really good. Some of the acting was good. The music was pretty good (I wouldn't be surprised if the music gets nominated for best score at the Oscars). Otherwise, the credits were a relief to see! That's about it!

Okay, now we are getting into the worst of the worst (like the Batman movies I have made). First off, you may be wondering; “How is Hugh Jackman in this?”. This is Jackman's WORST performance yet. Now, I really like Hugh Jackman. But here, I didn't like him. He was not playing Blackbeard! He was playing Johnny Depp playing Blackbeard, and I don't like Depp that much (although I did like him in Ed Wood – he was bad in the last 15 movies he's made though). Garrett Hedlund did a pretty decent job as Hook minus the fact that his voice sounded like a mix between the Crocodile Hunter and Jack Nicholson. And there was no inkling of Captain Hook in his performance. And Levi Miller's performance was good besides the fact that Peter Pan had zero personality (not a very good thing for your lead character). And Rooney Mara was datisfactory despite the fact that she is a white actress playing an African American character.

I said earlier that the effects were good. Let me rephrase that; the effects were good...but misused in a couple of places. They were just playing up some parts to the 3-D audience. And the writing is pretty bad, but there was a little plot twist that I didn't expect. But, everything else in the movie is just plain predictable! (Spoiler Alert) We find out the Peter Pan's mom was a fairy princess, but at the beginning of the movie they made her out to be a total idiot. She dropped Pan off as a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage run by a total witch. She's a fairy princess!!! Couldn't she have done her research to find a suitable place for her child to grow up?!? The time period is a bit skewed as well. The time period in all the previous versions of Peter Pan is set in the early 1900s. But, in this one, it is set during World War II (the 1940s). And, that would mean that when Wendy went to Neverland was in the 1950s...But that is the least of my problems with this movie. I never got emotionally invested in the story. So, I think I even dozed off at one point (but only for a moment or two). (spoiler alert) Peter Pan and Captain Hook never became enemies in this movie. I assume that they were saving that for a sequel that will never get made...So, overall, I give Pan one and a half stars (it's below MEH).

And now the answer to the quiz in my last blog. The answer is TRUE. Beauty and the Beast won Best Picture Musical or Comedy in 1992. And now this week's question; What was J.M. Berry's (the creator of Peter Pan) career?

A. Author
B. Playwright
C. Both A and B
D. Homemaker
E. A Representative of the mud people

You can comment or e-mail me (thatbradley@gmail.com) the answer. Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™And Jackman, I love you, but stick to playing Wolverine, bub!

By Mr. Bee 

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