Peter Pan & Wendy
The story begins with Wendy (Ever Anderson) spending the last night at home with her two younger brothers before heading off to boarding school. Wendy expresses much reluctance to go off to school and grow up, preferring to continue being a child and keep everything the way it has been. That very night, Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) promptly appears along with the fairy Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi), whisking all the children away to the magical Neverland, where none of them will ever have to grow up. They meet and befriend The Lost Boys (comprised of both boys and girls this time), as well as the Native American princess Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatahk, a member of the Bigstone Cree Nation), this time a butt-kicking action heroine on a horse.
They are almost immediately attacked by a ship of pirates led by Captain Hook, portrayed by Jude Law, who is clearly having a very good time. We come to find out that Captain Hook and Peter Pan share a secret history together, and eventually get an origin story for Hook that has an interesting effect on the overall story (mostly turning Peter Pan into an incredibly unlikeable character). Law's version of Hook is about as dangerous as a villain in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, even though he constantly talks about how he wants to execute Pan and the Lost Boys. He is very much an overgrown child bully that you end up pitying more than fearing, especially when paired up with his dopey yet seemingly sensible first mate Smee (Jim Gaffigan), who constantly seems to disapprove in an almost parental manner whenever Hook gets to ranting and raving.
Lowery's changes to the narrative are mostly in service of the overall theme of "it's not so scary to grow up." Wendy, who is already considerably older than all of the kids in Neverland, is in that difficult middle space between childhood and adulthood. She mostly moves through the movie as an observer while everyone around her lives through their own traumatic therapy sessions, leading her to the realization that maybe staying young isn't such a great idea. She is the heart of the movie, played with admirable relatability by Ever Anderson (who looks incredibly like her mother, Milla Jovovich).
Peter Pan himself is very often sidelined in favor of other more interesting characters, and the aforementioned origin of Hook does him no favors. I also hate to be too strong in a critique of a child actor, but Molony, whose elf-like features certainly look the part, feels entirely unconvincing as Pan, failing to sell the bravado necessary to make Pan's story convincing. Even more bizarre is decision to make Tinker Bell basically mute (or rather she speaks in a voice that is heard as tiny bells seemingly all to set up a predictably dramatic moment when Wendy can finally understand her), leaving actress Yara Shahidi with nothing to do but make exasperated faces.
There are other small subversions of the Peter Pan story here and there, some more successful than others, and many of which are made in an attempt to update a story conceived a very long time ago. I don't mind these kinds of changes. The bigger issue is the distinct lack of wonder and magic in this world, even as ships levitate in the air and kids soar through the sky. Everything feels oddly flat, shot with a very dark visual palette, straining for a kind of fantasy world grounded in a realism that doesn't suit the material. It's the same kind of off-putting CGI that has plagued all of the live-action Disney movies, further helping to make an argument against even making most of these in the first place.
While the messages are good and the story has a few surprises, it's still a relatively unimpressive spectacle with not a lot on display that would make you (or likely your children) want to return to it. It's a rare miss from Lowery, and another Disney remake that does little to justify its existence outside of putting up "new" content on Disney+.
