PAN - A Blu-Ray Film Review
Think of a wonderful thought. Any happy little thought. You're a PAN Peter!!
Peter Pan. One of the most well known fantasy stories ever conceived. Even people like me who never opened one of J.M. Barrie's books know about the "boy who never grows up". This can be largely attributed to one Walt Disney and his 1953 animated film of Peter Pan, which happened to be a part of my childhood, VHS, as well as many others I can well imagine. It was never really a favorite of mine even with the gorgeous animation Walt's Studio was known for. I don't hate it, but it's nowhere near the classic to me that it is to many. That would be Sleeping Beauty for me if we are talking of Uncle Walt's era. Anyway, that film introduced who knows how many countless millions of children around the globe to the "boy who could fly" and his arch nemesis Captain Hook. And his trusty fairy sidekick Tinkerbell too. Of course there were countless stage adaptations and other things made from this story over the years. Steven Spielberg took a crack at a live action big screen version featuring an adult Peter Pan starring Robin Williams as said adult Pan and Dustin Hoffman as the nefarious Captain Hook. This film was called Hook and released by Columbia Pictures in 1991. That film was critically and financially reviled upon its release, but it has grown a nice following over the years as it has been reevaluated and many now see it as one of Spielberg's more misunderstood and under-appreciated works. Then in 2003, a whopping FIVE DECADES after Walt's animated "masterpiece", a director named P.J. Hogan, whose biggest claim to fame at the time was a Julia Roberts vehicle called My Best Friend's Wedding, brought another attempt at telling the tale of Peter Pan in live action big budget fashion with a film simply titled... Peter Pan released by Universal. Now this film I really loved the first time I saw it on the big screen. It was stunningly gorgeous. The effects were deliberately crafted to have a more "storybook-ish" look rather than going for photo-realism and this resulted in a visual feast of incredible scope and scale. A young American boy named Jeremy Sumpter played Peter in this version and it was the first time the role had ever been played by an actual young boy in live action. He was good too. A newcomer young actress named Rachel Hurd-Wood played Wendy Darling and she gave a tremendous performance that totally belied her inexperience. She was a natural beauty and had charisma and screen presence to spare. Jason Isaacs played Hook in that film, which I own proudly and am definitely going to have to give it another watch after all these years, as well as Mr. Darling, which was a conceit spawned in the many stage iterations where the actor playing the role of the children's father would also play Hook. This version of the story would also bomb pretty terribly at the box office and would seem to be lost to the dust bin of cinematic history among the many other children's fantasy stories that were being adapted at the time after a certain boy wizard made a splash with his pals at a little place called Hogwarts in 2001.
Well now. Just press the fast forward button for another 12 years, and several needless delays and release date changes, and we end up with the subject of this little review of mine. PAN. Released by Warner Bros Pictures. Directed by Joe Wright, a very talented guy whose work I admire, specifically his gorgeous umpteenth filmed version of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley released in 2005 which was his first film and showed him as a director of immaculate vision behind the camera. Starring Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard, Garret Hedlund as James Hook, Rooney Mara as Princess Tiger Lily, and Levi Miller as Peter Pan. PAN positions itself as an origin story of Peter Pan. Peter Pan Begins you could call it. And it is kind of true in that sense. We open with Peter as a baby being dropped off at an Orphanage doorway by a young woman, played by Amanda Seyfried, at night. She appears very scared and also immensely torn over what she is about to do, but she leaves her baby on the steps with a note she hopes he will read one day, this sounds kind of familiar here (*cough* Harry Potter *cough*), and flees into the night. 12 years later the baby has grown into a boy named, of course, Peter. Heck, she calls him that before she leaves just so the new young audience can know that this is the baby destined to never grow up. And now it is WWII and London is being bombed almost nightly by the German army. When Peter dares to try and expose the nasty Headmistress of the orphanage for stealing the rations being provided for the orphans' care for herself Peter finds himself whisked away in the night by a band of pirates aboard a flying ship that takes him to, just guess, where he is put to work in a mine mining Pixum, seriously that is the term applied to fairy dust in here, for the dreaded Blackbeard, played with snarling maniacal glee by Hugh Jackman. And Mr. Jackman leads the denizens of the mine in singing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Yes, I just said it and it has been made much of in other reviews before now. So, it should come as no surprise to you then that if that song, which I have never listened to in full and yet I do recognize the lyrics, shows up in a PETER PAN movie then that movie is very idiosyncratic indeed. It is, but you know something? I like it. It's weird, but also weirdly enjoyable and fun to watch Jackman tear into the scenery around him as if he were an actor on death row and this was his last meal. In fact, thanks to some rather incredible makeup Wolverine actually looks as if he really is two steps from death sometimes. Funny how that works out. Anyway, to wrap up the summary, there is a prophecy (Of course, why wouldn't there be?) that speaks of a boy born from the union between a Fairy Prince and a human girl, who was whisked away to the human world when Blackbeard was trying to exterminate all the fairies for their Pixum, who will one day return to Neverland and bring about Blackbeard's demise and the salvation of the Fairy Kingdom. It's another damn "CHOSEN ONE" movie! Really?!
Indeed, the makers of PAN have turned J.M. Barrie's simple story of a boy who never grows old and has to constantly fight against the evil of aging in the form of a hook-handed pirate into yet another variation on the age old narrative convention of the "chosen one" who must save the day even though he doesn't believe it himself until it's almost too late and all hope seems lost. However, Pan is actually a fun ride. I'm serious. This is thanks in no small part to Joe Wright's exceptional visual flair and a blessedly fleet pace that keeps the story moving forward with nary a break. And the performances are fun. Jackman I've already mentioned and he does indeed chow down on the scenic buffet around him, but what of the boy who flies? Introducing Levi Miller as Peter Pan. This was proudly touted on the film's marketing and for good reason. Miller is actually quite impressive in the title role of the movie. He's got the pluck and fire that the character is known for, but he also has to bring in the shades of doubt and disbelief needed in order to make his journey as the prophesied "chosen one", seriously the movie throws that out there near constantly as if we could forget at any moment, believable. Miller is up for it all under Wright's direction and he is gamely supported by another scenery munching turn from Garret Hedlund as James Hook. And he is not a bad guy. Yet. There was supposed to be a whole slew of sequels after this one to show how Pan and Hook become enemies despite being best buds now, but that will likely never surface as PAN is also a gigantic flop for Warner Bros. One of many this year. However, Hedlund appears to be having a genuine gas in the role and keeps it lively. There's enough of the scoundrel in this Hook to see shades of what he will eventually become, but again we will likely never see this PAN out. HA! I punned the title. I feel so proud of myself. Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily. A caucasian woman in a role traditionally recognized as being Native American in the stories upon which the film is based. This casting decision of course sparked cries of racial "whitewashing" by the vocal groups concerned with such things. Wright was merely trying to avoid the accusations of racism thrown at the many other versions of Peter Pan throughout the years for their portrayals of the Native people, particularly the red faced stereotypes found in Uncle Walt's cherished 1953 animated film. That segment of that film gets so many peoples' goats today that it's a wonder the film still finds release in such a charged and volatile climate. Mara is fine and spirited in the role and really there is enough ethnic diversity in the Native Tribe of the film that fits what Wright was trying to do. It makes more sense that if the "Natives" of Neverland are merely people plucked from our world at various times that they would be a more ethnically diverse group rather than the straight Native American caricature that Walt portrayed, and J.M. Barrie before him. Now, keep in mind that like many films of Walt's era the portrayals are a product of their time. Wright was nobly trying to not offend one group of people, but as is often the case he wound up "offending" several more and I personally cry bullshit on all of it. Racism has no basis in this film. It is a FANTASY! It's about a boy who can fly and fairies and mermaids and other such things that have absolutely no basis in reality and the film doesn't even attempt to ground itself in reality. Why should it? IT HAS FLYING PIRATE SHIPS AND A PLANET SMALL ENOUGH FOR A BOY TO HOLD IT IN HIS ARMS! These pricks who cry "racism" at any and every little thing really piss me off. Okay, end rant. We come at last to Amanda Seyfried. She is barely in the movie for two minutes, but I guess she does what she has to do fine enough.
Okay. What about those visual effects? Well, they are as one would expect for a big budget film released in this era with the embarrassment of tech developments available to us. They are superb in other words. PAN looks like a million bucks. Well, more like $150 million if we're being real here. Two credited cinematographers worked on it, Seamus McGarvey and John Mathieson, and the movie could scarcely look more slick and polished if it tried. The production design by Aline Bonetto is fitting for the world of the film. The music by John Powell, who composed one of my all time favorite film scores with 2010's How To Train Your Dragon, is nice enough for the film and as eccentric to boot. So, with all of this, audio/visual specs for the film on Blu-Ray are par for what should be expected for a digitally shot and recorded film this recent and with the hefty price tag this one had. And indeed Warner Bros. has shuffled their second big box office bomb of the year off to home video a mere two and a half months after its theatrical debut. This has to be the shortest window for a major film yet.
Now, I may have enjoyed this version of PAN immensely while watching it, but the fact that it bombed so severely and that bombing means that we will almost certainly never see a continuation of this film that was supposed to start a new trilogy, well that means that this version of PAN, while fun, will always feel incomplete in a way. It's not the Peter Pan you grew up hearing about although seeds are being sown throughout PAN that tease at the coming developments that we will never get to see. It's a fun ride while it lasts and contains enough spirited performances and sleek visuals to keep attention, but it probably won't be one of those reevaluated films like Spielberg's Hook many years down the line. I don't think PAN will ever be considered a misunderstood or under-appreciated gem, but for my money it's a likable fantasy funhouse ride. Nothing life changing, but sturdy enough for me to be happy to have it around.
3.5/5
Review written by Eric Spearman 12/23/2015
No comments:
Post a Comment