The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Staging itself as a prequel to J.M Barrie’s classic children’s tale, director Joe Wright – see Atonement, Anna Karenina – is the man at the steering wheel for what is essentially an origin story to Peter Pan. It's an interesting concept, usually reserved for other genres, that has some entertaining moments; overall, though, its a flawed vision which, although visually engaging, suffers from a flimsy script and dreadful casting.

Pan is centred on Peter (Miller); a twelve-year-old boy living in WWII London, who was left at an orphanage as a baby by his frightened young mother (Seyfried). Living in the hope that, one day, his parents will return to claim him, Peter’s days at an orphanage soon come to an end with the appearance of Blackbeard (Jackman); a feared pirate who roams the sky in his flying ship and purchases young orphans for slave labour back in the magical land of Neverland.

Finding himself in digging for nuggets of fairy dust, young Peter soon befriends James Hook (Hedlund); a scruffy-looking explorer – with both hands seemingly intact – and fellow prisoner who is happy to have found a partner who will help him escape. However, Blackbeard soon becomes convinced that Peter is THE young boy who is prophesised to overthrow him from power and is quick to react, leaving it up to Peter – with the additional help of a warrior named Tiger Lily (Mara).

On the outside, Pan is a vision of beauty and Wright manages to embrace the magical, adventurous soul of the story we’ve all come to know and love with a great deal of spunk, colour and heart. Offering a welcomingly wacky backdrop, the CGI is effective enough, but definitely not the film’s strongest suit. There’s a sense of hollowness to its rather heavy-handed execution that follows the film throughout and, in terms of story, the plot deviates in a number of ways from the already established backstory.

While the bizarre rendition of Nirvana’s 1991’s smash-hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit, threatened to damage the film, Hugh Jackman’s scenery-chewing performance of the moustache-twirling Blackbeard – a character clearly inspired by Geoffrey Rush’s Hector Barbossa – stands as the highlight of the film.  Jackman throws himself into the role, while little Levi Miller, although serviceable, doesn’t quite get the room to show signs of being the boy who eventually comes to be Peter Pan – a factor that only serves to pull down the film further.