Pan (2015)

Plot of Pan: A young woman leaves a baby on the steps of an orphanage in London and the baby grows up into Peter, a boy of about 12 years, who together with other orphans is spirited away by pirates in a flying pirate ship. The ship sails, in the air to an island, Neverland where a horde of children chip away at rock to mine pixy dust to keep the captain of the pirate ship, Blackbeard, youthful. Peter, another man, Hook and a pirate, Smee escape and are captured by a native tribe in a forest, one of whom is Tiger Lily a young woman. Peter learns that he is the product of an affair between a fairy, in the form of a human and a young woman, so Peter will be able to fly if only he has faith. The tribe are attacked by pirates but Peter and his friends get away and are able to take over an old flying ship with which they can attack Blackbeard in his flying ship.

Content: No sex or nudity, no drinking drug taking or smoking, as long as the pixy dust is not seen as a drug. There are scenes in the orphanage as the evil chief nun treats the boys badly. When the flying pirate ship is over London it is attacked by Spitfires, so this was happening during WWII. When they arrive at the mine there are thousands of ragged boys chipping at the rocks. Later in the forest there is one to one combat with a young man in the native village. Once Tiger Lily joins them they escape in a raft, and Peter is captured by an enormous crocodile but is rescued by mermaids. There is more aerial combat between flying sailing ships. Possibly there is romance between Tiger Lily and Hook.

A View: This outing cost a fortune and lost most of it. The cost may well have been in the CGI which is enormously expensive, and in this case pretty boring in its presentation. It is absolutely no fun and the changes in the roles played by the characters in the story is bewildering. Even if we did not know the original, earlier films have more or less stuck to J.M.Barrie’s presentation. In this case Hook, rather than being a villain, is a hero, and he does not have a hook. He and the crocodile have no relationship. And a battle between a flying sailing ship and Spitfires! Give me strength. So even though the trailer may be attractive, give this bomb a  miss.

Fun Fact: There were objections to the casting of Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, who is supposed to be a Native American. Was it lost on the objectors that this is some sort of  fantasy?