The new live-action remake from Mickey Mouse called "Peter Pan & Wendy" brings together everything that has been grating on our eyes and ears in recent years. Why?

Plot

Wendy Moira Angela Darling (Ever Anderson) is afraid of entering adulthood, so when the hero of magical stories, Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), appears at her bedroom window, she agrees without a second thought to fly with her brothers Michael and John, following Pan to a mysterious land called Neverland, where children never grow up.

There, Wendy awaits adventures, danger, and old secrets, which only she can get to the bottom of. She will be helped by the Lost Boys (which include not only boys), the warrior Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatâhk), and of course, the fairy Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi). And opposing them will be the formidable figure of the pirate Captain Hook (Jude Law) with his band of desperate ruffians.

Another Version of the Play "Peter Pan"

The theatrical play "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" by James M. Barrie, later reworked by him into a novel, is quite rich in film adaptations. One of the most popular, of course, was the animated film "Peter Pan" from Disney Studios – but let's not forget "Hook" by Steven Spielberg, and the relatively classic film "Peter Pan" by P. J. Hogan, and the rather strange experiment "Pan" by Joe Wright.

The presence of so many works prevents us from viewing the new film in a vacuum. Comparisons are simply inevitable. Especially considering the fact that director David Lowery (who recently gave us "The Green Knight") simultaneously tried to make an adaptation quite close to the original cartoon and at the same time add a bit of himself to the story.

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To our great regret, "Peter Pan & Wendy" does not stand up to comparison.

On the one hand, it directly contradicts established traditions (according to which, for example, the roles of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling are canonically played by the same actor, metaphorically illustrating children's fear of growing up).

On the other hand, it does nothing original – the scene with "you don't see miracles because you're just looking wrong" is much better shown by Spielberg, and the backstory of Hook and Pan is outright stolen (we'll talk about that in more detail later).

Problems of the Film

But even if we pretend that "Peter Pan & Wendy" is the only adaptation, the film still falls apart like a house of cards. Lowery seems to have taken all the conflicts and dilemmas posed by Barrie and thrown them out the window, replacing them with completely new nods to the modern agenda that don't fit into the context of the story.

Question: "Then why adapt the material at all, instead of writing something new and original?"

• No more analysis of the positive and negative traits of the titular and eternally young hero – our Peter Pan will be an emotional and incompetent soy boy, reduced to a secondary character against the backdrop of the feminist icon Wendy;
• No more conflicts among the girls – now we only have flat Mary Sues who, without any preparation, toss pirates left and right and understand each other without words;
• No more offensive depictions of Native Americans – our Tiger Lily is so cool that she can be removed from the narrative without any loss to the plot;
• No more Lost Boys – now the company includes girls, even though this contradicts one of the proto-feminist messages of the book (that girls are too smart to fall out of cradles).

All this disgrace takes place in an absolutely anti-magical Neverland, which here looks like some Irish island (similar to what we saw in "The Banshees of Inisherin"). There are no more mermaids as full-fledged characters, nor Native Americans. Everything mentioned above is filtered through a gray-green gloomy color grade, of course, to make the picture as dull and uninteresting as possible. Poor Yara Shahidi just blends into the background!

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Speaking of her. Alas, despite all her external appeal, Yara acts terribly in this film, as if her main task was: "Be pretty, pout your lips, and under no circumstances show any emotions."

Peter Pan (that is, Alexander Molony) also delivers his lines so monotonously, as if reading a poem at a school matinee. The only one who tries is Jude Law, and even his efforts are shattered by mediocre dialogue and highlight the incompetence of his partners.

Grim Potential

With these conclusions, we come to one interesting aspect – whether by accident or on purpose, the backstory of the relationship between Captain Hook and Peter in this version directly, almost with quotes, references Christina Henry's book "The Lost Boy". Moreover, Lowery's much darker and more realistic approach wildly resembles the atmosphere of that book. Coincidence?

Therefore, while watching, I caught myself thinking a million times that if Lowery were not making a remake of the "Peter Pan" cartoon, but rather a brutal and bloody adaptation of Henry's book, the effect would be much more interesting. Because then he could cut loose to the fullest, not afraid to show Pan in the most negative light, but here we have restrictions upon restrictions. And it turns out that the new "Peter Pan" is neither interesting in itself, nor has it delivered a low-calorie version of a much tastier dish.

It's a pity, because you can even find some truly decent scenes here. It's just that you risk falling asleep somewhere in the middle.