Movie of the Week: Pan

[jacey]

How can something that is a visual delight be so boring? Pan has everything going for it - including Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard, the villain - but manages to miss the mark by a mile. I'd read bad reviews. I should have believed them.

Okay, it's not all bad news. Levi Miller is an effective lead as Peter Pan and largely holds the movie together. Garrett Hedlund is an engaging Hook (who has not yet lost his hand and fallen out with Peter), though he plays it straight out of the Star Wars book with so many Han Solo momentds that you almost wonder which film you're watching. Rooney Mara is a very cute Tiger Lily and gets some pretty cool swashbuckling action scenes. Sadly Hugh Jackman plays Blackbeard as if he were in pantomime. Very occasionally there's an 'acting' moment, and you see a real person behind the character, but I suspect the director kept him firmly two-dimensional because this is certainly not his usual standard of acting. It has to be deliberate.

There's some good CGI with flying three-masted sailing ships, and one or two slightly tacky moments, but mostly the visuals are good, if a little 'Avatar' on occasions. I'm deeply relieved that we saw the 2D version, however.

What lets the whole thing down? Poor script and lacklustre direction/editing. It takes a long time to make its point and to get from event to event. On the whole, I spent the last half of the movie checking my watch because I'd seen enough by that time.

Do yourself a favour, go and see The Martian instead.