Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)
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Peter Pan & Wendy Movie Review
Peter Pan & Wendy is a 2023 family fantasy adventure film directed by David Lowery and starring Jude Law. It’s such an unimaginative take on this famous story.
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“For to die, would be an awfully big adventure“
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I have huge respect for David Lowery as a filmmaker. His ‘The Green Knight’ was one of the best movies of its respected year and his take on ‘Pete’s Dragon’ resulted in one of the better Disney live-action remakes. But unfortunately, his take on ‘Peter Pan’ did not quite work, though I do admire his obvious love for the source material that was evident throughout this messy movie.
Yes, Lowery did imbue this version of the story with some more meaningful moments and themes. The emphasis on growing up and how different adults are from children was wonderful, and that led to some very moving moments between Peter and Wendy in particular. But the film lacked that beautiful, heartwarming ending of the original movie.
This version of the story obviously tried to fix everything that was culturally insensitive about the original 1953 Disney adaptation. Pan himself is Indian while Tinker Bell is black. The Lost Boys are changed in ethnicities and also gender, which was odd and the explanation for it was basically to brush it aside as a non-issue. I have no bigger qualms with these changes as I do in fact find the original film quite racist and sexist, but this just goes to show that representation is by far the least important aspect of any film as that culturally problematic original is still miles above this remake in all the other meaningful areas.
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I am of course talking about the magic of it all. This remake has no magic I am afraid to say. None. I never felt anything watching it. It never moved me and it never enchanted me. the cinematography is actually quite good as expected from a David Lowery movie, but the film was otherwise stripped of any magic or color as it seemed too realistic and plain in its view of Neverland. The adventurous elements were thus non-existent and the resulting flick was never as fun as it should have been.
I also found the acting and the characterization deeply flawed. I don’t like to criticize child actors, but Alexander Molony as Peter Pan was just bad. He read all of his lines in such a monotonous way that really bothered me. The Tinker Bell in this movie was totally underdeveloped as very little screen time was devoted to her. The same goes for Tiger Lily, who really shouldn’t have even been in this film as she got so little to do. And all of the other children were utterly forgettable as well.
John and Michael were solid, on the other hand, and I have to say that I loved this more proactive and realistic version of Wendy. Ever Anderson delivered by far the best performance in this movie and she was wonderful as Wendy. She is the daughter of Mila Jovovich, so this is a positive case of nepotism.
What Peter Pan & Wendy did to Captain Hook was insufferable. I never personally bought Jude Law in this role and he was only serviceable. Basically, they gave him an origin story, a backstory that reveals that he was one of The Lost Boys until he was banished by Pan, which effectively made Pan the bigger villain of the story.
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This did not sit well with me as the movie too desperately tried to make viewers empathize with this guy who is supposed to be the villain. Thus, all the action was less effective and of course the goofier elements, such as the crocodile were totally uninspired. The movie is well scored, but containing none of the songs from the original in an odd move by the filmmaker, though I did respect the film for not being another copy-paste Disney remake.
Peter Pan & Wendy is another mediocre Disney live-action remake. I have huge respect for David Lowery and he did imbue this version of the story with some strong themes and moving moments, but he failed to bring magic to the table. This is a great proof that representation is far from the most important element in movies. The 1953 original was admittedly quite racist and sexist, and this movie fixed all of that cultural insensitivity, but it still failed to compete with the original as it lacked the magic, the adventure and the memorable soundtrack of said flick. I did like the movie’s version of Wendy quite a bit, but I despised what they did with Hook. They tried so hard to make viewers empathize with him by giving him a tragic backstory that was frustratingly unnecessary.
My Rating – 3
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