Movie Review; Pan

 Entrapped in the fantasy world of Neverland, Peter (Levi Miller) embarks upon an adventure that will reveal to him the truth about his mother and how she valiantly fought the ruthless pirate, Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman).

REVIEW: Peter Pan was never a superhero but his flying quirks and his affability has endured the years. Joe Wright's origin-story film Pan based on JM Barrie's Peter Pan (as the film's end credits spell out) banks solely on the innocence of its child actor, Miller. The film is strictly for kids and probably that's how Wright had planned it.

Pan has an unnecessary and incoherent story, with garish visual design and deafening background score. It seeks to salvage its odds by Miller's charm. He is a strikingly beautiful child with bewitching blue eyes which can easily enamour viewers. Despite a shoddy Oliver-Twist-ish beginning that kicks off in the backdrop of the Second World War, the story soon breezes into Neverland after Peter is hauled up by pirates.

The story uses its dreamy terrain to add flair to an otherwise uninspired plot. In an important sequence involving gunshots, the film sees an interesting burst of colours catering strictly to the child with us. In Barrie's words Peter Pan is the boy who wouldn't grow up and Wright takes his audience back to the basics.

Pan is the story of the 'Chosen One', who, according to prophecy, has the cumbersome task of defeating the villain Blackbeard. The film plays on the cliche and does a sufficient job at it. There is nothing much to write home about Jackman, who is just about adequate as the 'menacing' antagonist.

Though leaping crocodiles and VFX-ified mermaids are gimmicky distractions, Pan is still grand, elaborate and pleasantly catchy, despite a lack of vision. If you can stomach its outlandish frames and amateur story (that hardly pays homage to Barrie) and manage to feel giddy at the silliness on display, then you'll comfortably pull through the experience of watching it. Here is a passable entertainer that can be the cause of your child's mirth but that's about it.