Pan

It might not be the best Peter Pan story, but, thankfully, this one doesn’t have Brian Williams’ daughter cackling like a rooster.

Levi Miller stars as Peter – a young orphan boy raised by nuns in London, but he has never given up hope his mother (Amanda Seyfried) will return for him. It’s World War II, and many of the children are being shipped off to Canada and other places to avoid the constant German bombing of the city.

However, Peter and his best pal, Nibs (Lewis MacDougall), discover his fellow orphans are not leaving in the middle of the night to go to Canada. They are being taken … by pirates!

Yes, evil pirates are taking the orphans to Neverland, where they are enslaved to work in the mines by the dastardly Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman), who likes to sing songs by Nirvana and the Ramones. He uses the forced labor to dig for fairy dust, but Peter’s arrival upends his plans because the boy might be the prophesized one who will lead the Tribes and the Fairies to victory over Blackbeard.

Will Peter save Neverland from Blackbeard?

When did this movie become Harry Potter with the Brits and the orphans and the prophecy?

Director Joe Wright is trying to let his Tim Burton Flag fly in Pan, but someone told him it will be marketed as a kids movie, which leads to all sorts of mixed tones and levels of sophistication.

At times, Pan is a dark, dangerous movie full of frightening threats from Blackbeard, especially as Jackman wonderfully shows our villain to be a ruthless, heartless and bloodthirsty cad. If this was a movie aimed more directly at adults, you get the impression Jackman would be able to fully show us the evil inside Blackbeard in a more stunning way. Here, he has to let it out in dribs and drabs.

Then, the audience is subject to more than enough big action scenes to satisfy the kids who aren’t looking for dialogue and story. Yet, you wonder how they will handle the death and destruction running rampant throughout Pan.

Miller is amazing as the young, earnest lad so desperate to find the mother he never knew, and he delivers his performance like a pro with all of the right nuances and command of the screen.

Garrett Hedlund, on the other hand, should have paid more attention to the kid. His performance as James Hook (yep, that Hook) isn’t much more than an affected, stiff attempt to be Han Solo. Writer Jason Fuchs makes Hook into a rebellious, world weary wise guy with a rakish charm (kind of like our favorite gunslinger from Star Wars), but Hedlund always sounds and looks like he is trying too hard. Don’t even get me started on his love story.

Pan is a mixed movie with some very cool visuals and a likable kid in the middle of it all.

Pan is rated PG for fantasy action violence, language and some thematic material.