'Pan' is the story of a young orphan who finds himself on a magical adventure in Neverland and eventually grows into the legend known as Peter Pan. I personally thought the trailer for this film looked pretty cool, after seeing it 20 times it looked like this was going to be a huge, spectacular, fun adventure film that was going to have a light-hearted but slightly dark tone. And after seeing it, i have to say that it really wasn't that great and was quite disappointing actually. The biggest thing to point out is that this isn't as much of a family film as i thought it was going to be, it definitely is more of a kids film that those aged 10 to 15 would enjoy the most. The performances were OK, save for Hugh Jackman who was understandably the stand-out role. Some characters were a little too comical and over exaggerated, and i believe it was more the fault of the writers rather than the actors. The plot was structured pretty well and i thought it was easy enough to follow and moved at a relatively steady pace, good for the audience it was aiming for.
Firstly, the CGI in this film i thought was mostly pretty impressive, and it needed to be because at least 90% of this film is just CGI. There were some really cool shots of the various locations in Neverland and i gotta say i really liked that aspect of the film. Although you know it is all completely fake, it still does suck you into the world. There were a few moments though where the CGI was a little too much and did take me out of the scene. Most of this was during the action sequences where you had a lot of stuff going on and the screen got very busy. There was one moment especially, in the Tribal area, that was so obviously fake it just looked very wrong and took me out of the film completely for the next 5 minutes or so. So the CG effects were definitely one of the highlights of the film for me.
Performance wise the film was just average overall. I didn't mind Levi Miller's performance as Peter Pan, he did a fine job leading the film and had some pretty good individual moments where his potential talents came through. Hey, the kid's a good cryer. Garret Hedlund as the infamous pirate Captain Hook was one of the low-points of the film for me. I really don't think it was Hedlund who chose to act that way, i think it was written in the character and he took me out of the film a few times. His rendition of Hook was comical and was just very exaggerated in his line deliveries and actions, and that was one of the aspects i thought just didn't fit in with the rest of the film. There is another character who shows up occasionally and is there purely to serve the purpose of comic relief, but it was all humour for young kids and just didn't interest me or make me laugh. Hugh Jackman as i mentioned was really good as Blackbeard in this film, he is such a versatile actor who can play a wide range of characters and definitely had the standout performance. Overall he felt like the most grounded character but even then he did have some moments that were slightly out of character and also a little comical.
One final problem i had with the film was with some of the dialogue that was very very unnatural and felt forced at times where i just wasn't buying into their conversations. Like, there were some lines in the trailer that worked well in the trailer, but in the film, as i mentioned, they felt thrown in there just to be used later on in the trailer. So yeh the dialogue wasn't great. Bust despite what i didn't like i have to say the film did have some somewhat entertaining moments. I was never completely engaged in what was going on but i thought the film was consistently average from start to finish. There were no sequences i HATED and no sequences i really LOVED, it was all just average the whole way through so i guess it did well at focusing in on that younger audience who would love the film more than others. - 4.8/10
Firstly, the CGI in this film i thought was mostly pretty impressive, and it needed to be because at least 90% of this film is just CGI. There were some really cool shots of the various locations in Neverland and i gotta say i really liked that aspect of the film. Although you know it is all completely fake, it still does suck you into the world. There were a few moments though where the CGI was a little too much and did take me out of the scene. Most of this was during the action sequences where you had a lot of stuff going on and the screen got very busy. There was one moment especially, in the Tribal area, that was so obviously fake it just looked very wrong and took me out of the film completely for the next 5 minutes or so. So the CG effects were definitely one of the highlights of the film for me.
Performance wise the film was just average overall. I didn't mind Levi Miller's performance as Peter Pan, he did a fine job leading the film and had some pretty good individual moments where his potential talents came through. Hey, the kid's a good cryer. Garret Hedlund as the infamous pirate Captain Hook was one of the low-points of the film for me. I really don't think it was Hedlund who chose to act that way, i think it was written in the character and he took me out of the film a few times. His rendition of Hook was comical and was just very exaggerated in his line deliveries and actions, and that was one of the aspects i thought just didn't fit in with the rest of the film. There is another character who shows up occasionally and is there purely to serve the purpose of comic relief, but it was all humour for young kids and just didn't interest me or make me laugh. Hugh Jackman as i mentioned was really good as Blackbeard in this film, he is such a versatile actor who can play a wide range of characters and definitely had the standout performance. Overall he felt like the most grounded character but even then he did have some moments that were slightly out of character and also a little comical.
One final problem i had with the film was with some of the dialogue that was very very unnatural and felt forced at times where i just wasn't buying into their conversations. Like, there were some lines in the trailer that worked well in the trailer, but in the film, as i mentioned, they felt thrown in there just to be used later on in the trailer. So yeh the dialogue wasn't great. Bust despite what i didn't like i have to say the film did have some somewhat entertaining moments. I was never completely engaged in what was going on but i thought the film was consistently average from start to finish. There were no sequences i HATED and no sequences i really LOVED, it was all just average the whole way through so i guess it did well at focusing in on that younger audience who would love the film more than others. - 4.8/10