Pan (2015)
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 Ironic how a movie called Pan was critically panned.
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Pan is a 2015 American fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Wright and written by Jason Fuchs. The film serves as a prequel to Peter and Wendy from Scottish author J. M. Barrie, which was first staged in 1904, and focuses on an alternative origin story for Peter Pan and Captain Hook. It stars Hugh Jackman as a fictionalized version of Blackbeard, Garrett Hedlund as Hook, Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, and Levi Miller as the title character. The world premiere was held in London on September 20, 2015, and it was theatrically released in the United States on October 9, 2015, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Plot
Living a bleak existence at a London orphanage, 12-year-old Peter (Levi Miller) finds himself whisked away to the fantastical world of Neverland. Adventure awaits as he meets new friends James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) and the warrior Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara). They must band together to save Neverland from the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). Along the way, the rebellious and mischievous boy discovers his true destiny, becoming the hero forever known as Peter Pan.
Why It Got Panned
- Rooney Mara, a usually talented actress, is severely miscast as Tiger Lily, which spawned massive controversy and accusations of whitewashing, as Tiger Lily is supposed to be native American while Mara is caucasian.
- There's the fact that Peter is the chosen one and he refuses to believe that he is, the amulet he had since his birth is the key that unlocks a hidden world, his mother was a powerful warrior who fell in love with a prince of that world. The heroine who helps Peter knows his mother and trained with her. His first friend in Neverland just happens to be the one man who could and would help him escape and find his mother.
- Peter Pan himself is an unlikable and annoying protagonist with a few exceptions.
- Extremely poor grasp of the source material and mythology.
- Peter in the original play and book is a human boy who just chooses to run away to Neverland with the fairies - not a half-fairy Chosen One as depicted.
- Although, given Peter's penchant to make things up when questioned, e.g. telling Wendy that Neverland is "Second to the right, and straight on til morning", it's entirely possible that he has a different backstory. Especially considering that Peter states that he ran away as a newborn baby.
- Captain Hook gets a Younger and Hipper approach and becomes an American cowboy.
- Tiger Lily also becomes a sexy adult warrior who goes through a Race Lift.
- Although putting aside the Race Lift, Tiger Lily is fairly accurate to the original book, as she was a sexy adult warrior. J.M. Barrie mentions that Tiger Lily always took the back of the line while hunting, as that was the most dangerous place to be, and mentions her as being so desirable that many braves of her tribe had attempted to marry her, but she would ward them away with her hatchet.
- The play took place in the Edwardian Era, whereas the film has Peter's origin story happening in World War II. This didn't go down well with diehard fans.
- Peter in the original play and book is a human boy who just chooses to run away to Neverland with the fairies - not a half-fairy Chosen One as depicted.
- The plot is formulaic and generic.
- Lame action that is heavily reliant on CGI, such as Peter Pan floating or the effects on the never bird.
- Blackbeard is a predictable, unnecessary, and minor villain who is just another of your typical "generic doomsday" villains, with his goals just "I'm going to destroy the world because I'm evil!" cliché.
- Some of the acting is bad, Hugh Jackman is over the top and Garret Hedlund has a terrible accent.
- Lots of stuff that doesn't make sense, (eg. how come Blackbeard can't find the Neverland natives when his map shows tribal land and why are the Neverland natives so diverse?)
- The film does nothing new as it is irrelevant to the story.
- Most viewers tend to agree that if the film was a more straightforward adaptation where Hugh Jackman was playing Captain Hook himself, it likely would have been more enjoyable and more interesting than the cookie-cutter "Chosen One" plot.
- Many people believed that it would've been better if Peter's mother had been a Fairy Queen and Captain Hook had both been his father and the one to kill his mother; it would've added deeper substance to the story, as well as add an interesting sense of cruel irony when Hook and Peter became enemies.
- Pointless romance subplot between James Hook and Tiger Lily.
- Once the pirates approach the mines, everybody suddenly starts singing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, which is nonsensical, random, and weird that something is wrong to hear anyone's ear as the song didn't exist during that period, although one could argue that since Blackbeard can steal children from different periods, he may have led them to pick up this song from contemporary times.
- Several plot holes; like a ship that is already in the air do not need sails. It would move with whatever air current there was. (Okay, it is magic, but there still should be some logic.)
- The humor is weak.
- A lot of the characters were seriously wasted and barely got any character development.
- Peter's friend Nibs gets left behind when the children are kidnapped, despite the potential he has in the film. Peter's eventual belief in himself probably would have had more weight if Nibs had been there to help him, rather than Hook and Tiger Lily - who he barely knows.
- Tinkerbell has a small cameo and the film does not attempt to develop the friendship between her and Peter.
- Wasting a character by appearing a short time is bad enough, but wasting by not appearing at all is worse. Word of God stated that Leni Zieglmeier was supposed to play Wendy Darling in the film.
- Fans of Amanda Seyfried feel she was wasted, only appearing in two short scenes and could have added even more to the story.
Redeeming Qualities
- The soundtrack is decent by John Powell.
- Solid acting from most of the cast. Levi Miller tries his best in his role of Peter Pan.
- Some good action scenes.
- Good cinematography, thanks to Seamus McGarvey and John Mathieson's great filming.
- In 2017, two years after the critical and commercial failure of Pan, director Joe Wright later redeemed himself and finally got great reviews again with the Winston Churchill biographical movie Darkest Hour.
Reception
Critical response
Pan received generally negative reviews from critics and audiences, with criticism calling the plot formulaic and the action heavily reliant on CGI and the casting of white actress Rooney Mara as American Indian character Tiger Lily. Mara would later voice regret over her role in the film. However, some praised its action sequences, John Powell’s score, and the performances of Jackman, Hedlund, and Miller. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 27% based on 196 reviews and an average rating of 4.56/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Pan finds a few bursts of magic in its prequel treatment of classic characters, though not enough to offset the rushed plot and shrill, CGI-fueled action". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 36 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Jeremy Jahns gave this movie a Dogshit! rating.
Box office
Pan failed to recoup its budget. It opened up at #1 on its opening weekend making a domestic gross of $5,183,169. The total domestic gross was $35,088,320. In foreign territories, it made $93,300,000. Overall, Pan grossed $128,388,320 against its $150 million budget, causing Warner Bros. to lose an estimated $150 million budget.
Videos
Trivia
- Rooney Mara later regretted playing her role of Tiger Lily in a February 2016 interview.
- According to Joe Wright, who directed the movie in a 2017 interview while he was promoting his movie Darkest Hour, Wright said he almost quit directing and considered retirement after the box office failure of Pan. He said: "I had just made this $100 million flop. It was a dark, difficult time. I didn’t know if I was going to make any more movies, I didn’t know that I wanted to make movies anymore, to be honest.".
External links
Pan at the Internet Movie Database
Pan on Rotten Tomatoes