JPM Presents: Peter Pan the Movie

JPM Presents: Peter Pan The Movie Quick review.

With the most recent announcement of the all new 'Pan' movie re-telling the origins of the legendary story about Peter Pan you would think I would be happy to see a live action version of a story involving the boy that would never grow up as he fights and flies through a world of magic and wander. And I would be! Honestly I would be extremely happy to see a new look at a legendary story if... it hadn't been done already!
That's right. Although not many may remember it, there was actually another live action Peter Pan movie that already told the story about the legend and even had alot of hype regarding it. Just like this new 'Pan' movie is getting alot of hype. Hell for the hype of the new one we had two really famous actors appear on our TV ads to advertise it making a fool of themselves. That is pretty funny. But when Peter Pan, the first live action one, came out it was immensely hyped up for it's beauty and originality and look at the legend. By now, if you don't know the Peter Pan story you've probably never been a kid. It's the story of a family of three kids that get whisked away by a flying, fighting young boy named Peter Pan who wants them to have fun with him and stay young forever in Never Neverland, with all the pirates and fairies and magical creatures and strange and awesome elements of that world that makes the fairy tale exactly that. 'Pan' the new live action film, seems to be a remake of the young boy's origins. the only problem about this remake is that I, like many others similar to me, am SOOO used to the original story of Peter Pan that anything that can try and remake it might be a bad thing.

As it is, since I saw the trailers for the new movie I can't say i'm getting anymore excited for it. It seems to be about a rebellious orphaned boy in an orphanage... hasn't that been done before? and hears about this strange prophecy based around him in another world... um yeh ok that's been done too.... where he meets one of the most well known villains of all time and it seems that he ISN'T the villain and is simply misunderstood.... oh are you FUCKING kidding me?! Sorry I just... urgh ever since Frozen did it it's been tried to be done over and over! And now this movie wants to do it?! Urrggh... well anyway that's not what we're focusing on right now. We're talking about the original live action Peter Pan. What really surprised me was that, even though it was really hyped up and got a really good actor as Hook and some amazing action in it, after it premiered it just was sort of... forgotten. In fact, now when I ask people if they have seen that live action version, they ask what the heck I'm talking about. Why is that? the movie is REALLY good. I'm not kidding. Like I said it's got great action, great story and very fascinating scenery and background characters. You've got Hook, of course, who is played by ... oh wow the same guy that played Draco's father in Harry Potter? Wow that... that fits so damn well! And Hook isn't the only character he plays either. He even plays as the kids that get kidnapped father. That adds some very interesting contrast between the real life family situation and the fantasy world dangerous situation. You're not sure if the kids are falling for Hook's tricks because they see their father in him or not and that, surprisingly, gives it some really good look. There isn't a heap of focus n the humurous side-kicks like Smee and Tinkerbell which is fascinating because in the cartoon they focused a heap on these two and their goofy or whiny or manipulated behaviour, In this version they focus more on the relationship between the girl that gets whisked away and Peter, which is ok I guess. I mean it's the first time Peter is able to hang out much with the opposite gender and you know that, because he is sort of teen aged, he is obviously falling in love with her the more he spends time with her. And yes, even the time they spend together is really done well. They start off as typical friends that are enjoying this fascinating world of magic and get a bit more developed more and more as time passes. They have arguments and they fight but they play and laugh and help each other out. Their connection is actually fantastic to see.

So why is it that this movie isn't as talked about now? What is it about this movie that's made it so forgetful? Well I recently took another look at it and tried to figure it out, and to my thoughts it all lies with the legendary boy himself: Peter Pan. The actor that plays Peter Pan in this is just too bland and underacts WAY too much. He tries, don't get me wrong! He really tries. Like the scene where he has to bring Tinkerbell back to life, to this day, still makes me cry when he actually looks like he is legit crying about loosing such a good, close friend. But aside from this he is just way too bland! In fact I can't think of ANYTHING this boy has moved onto ever since this movie. I get the feeling he was trying to catch the OLD times of when this movie is meant to be based too much, like he was thinking that he had to act like an old timed version of Peter Pan and not actually a current Peter Pan. I mean yeh it's a movie based in the past during possibly the Mary Poppins era, but because it is a fantasy realm where Peter is, he doesn't know about these times and so I get the feeling that Peter Pan would actually be more into the pirate era and swashbuckling and getting more cranky and... urgh it just felt like he was trying WAY to hard to be the kid to relate to the times that these other kids came from and really we wanted to see what we thought was going to be a swashbuckling adventurer. I don't know maybe it's just me but that felt like what ruined the movie's hype in my opinion.

The action though? Top notch. The scenes where Peter has to fight against Hook and his crew while also trying to avoid the viscious colossus crocodile are just so amazing you felt like you were actually there. And oh yeah let's talk about the crocodile! Holy Cow they really did so well to create such a frightening and blood-thirsty creation that you completely forget the ditzy, cartoonish crocodile of the original Disney cartoon movie. EVERY time you see this thing you know that something horrid and scary is going to happen and you can feel the fear from every character and the actors bring that forward well. Perhaps my favourite part involving the croc is when Peter and the girl need to go to a cove or castle where Hook has decided to lay out a trap to try and capture Peter. After Peter manages to trick Hook and release the kids, the crocodile attacks Hook and his men in possibly the greatest monster attack in the movie. It had a few small laughs in it which, yeah felt very strange to laugh at, but the way it was performed and created was just SO good that, for a small while, you were actually scared with Hook of this monstrosity. It was that good.

The actors of the kids? They were really good. I mean they weren't brilliant but they played kids of that era pretty good, even with the mix of the Lost boys was done well. The touching scene at the end when the lost boys decide to live with parents is really delivered well and you think they generally want a real home. Again the actor that played Hook and the kids' father really did a great job bringing to life the terror of Hook and the anger and parenting of the father who just wants to be a good father but also the caring, regretful side of the father who knows when they were too harsh. In the deleted scenes of the movie there's this actually really funny but sad moment that has the father in a dog house being delivered home from work because he feels guilty about being so mean to the dog thus leading to the disappearance to the kids. I don't know why this was deleted but then again you already get the feeling that he is regretful of what he's done and you legit feel for him when he sees they are all back and he hugs them and wants them to be a family again. The mother is done well, the two boys are done good and the girl... well... ok the girl and Peter oddly enough aren't that great but to be fair just like the other actors she is only working with what she can and I'll give her credit for trying.

The parts with flying are unbelievable. This was done during time when flying was already considered normal but the way they created the illusion of flight was amazing. You truly felt like you were with them every time they flew from place to place. They even had a really awesome battle scene near the end flying around too which was done well. If you get the DVD version of this movie, check out how they made the flight scenes possible. It's really worth a look.

The story feels like it was someone's attempt to make a slightly darker but still just as fun version of the Disney cartoon original, and it certainly shows. You don't get the feeling that it was created just because people thought the story needed to be retold in a different light with current 'popular' movie storylines, you get the feeling they were trying to be original while still sticking to some of the old things that made the cartoon and legend popular.

So do I like it? Oh yeah! definitely! It's by far one of the most adventurous movies I've seen, and that's saying something since I love Pirates of the Caribbean and Terminator as well, but on it's own it's a really great movie with really well done CGI, animation and well practised actors. Do I think it needs to be popular again? Maybe but that's really up to others to decide. As for this new version that is basically trying to add in old cliches from more popular movies to try and force a new 'remake' of the peter pan legacy? I'm sorry to say, but I'm definitely going to give that one a skip.

I'm JustParodiezMan and I need a lemon,lime bitters. *flies away*