My thoughts on Peter Pan. SPOILERS!
Dec. 27th, 2003 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideSpoilers for Peter Pan the movie; I'm not going to cut any of this, so skip it or just cope.
Sad to say that I can spoil the movie without spoiling the book. :/
I'm not sure PJ Hogan and I read the same book. It almost seems as if he flipped through a few pages, said, "I'll take this, this, this and this," and then pulled the rest out of...somewhere else. Clearly, clearly he decided for cliche and Hollywood-poignant string-pulling over the original (sub)text.
I might have enjoyed (most of) this movie if I hadn't read the book. But the cliches! The cliches! The whole "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!" scene was so overdone as to be silly. Hogan went for the Big Movie Scene instead of doing it the way the book did it. The book had restraint, damnit, it didn't ever rely on beating you over the head with ideas. I'm not dense, PJ Hogan. I don't need to be battered with Teh Pretty!!!111 and Teh OMFG-ROMANCE!!!11
Speaking of beating the audience over the head, hello! He turned Mrs. Darling's Kiss into a big, obvious thing. WRONG. And who the hell was this "Aunt Millicent" person?
The biggest, HUGEST problem I had with this movie was Wendy. They murdered her. Wendy Moira Angela Darling, getting into trouble at school for drawing a naughty picture. Busting in on Mr. Darling while he was at work. Dreading being an adult! Wendy wanted to be an adult, and she didn't have to go to Neverland to learn that. Wendy Moira Angela Darling, consenting to not only tell stories to pirates, but to being one! Red-handed Jill my ass. It was John who told Hook he wouldn't mind being a pirate called Red-handed Jack, and Wendy was appalled. Wendy went about the ship writing "dirty pig" on everything, and she had so much contempt for Hook throughout that it nearly killed him. This is what I mean when I say that it seems the writers and director picked tiny little things out of the book that they liked, and made up the rest. In the movie, Wendy was much too perky. It looks like they went for the Spunky Female cliche instead of letting her be the strange, restrained yet deep girl that she was. (In fact, in the book, it was almost like Wendy was Superego, Hook was Ego and Peter was Id. How often do you get an Id protagonist and an Ego antagonist? But I just pulled that outta my ass, and maybe I'm reading too much into it.)
What else way way off? Tink's alliance with Hook. WTF? Smee breaking the fourth wall and talking to the camera, for godsake. The fact that the Indians were adults. Adults in Neverland indeed! The book never specified their ages, but seeing them portrayed as adults was so jarring that I nearly dropped my M&Ms all over the floor. Adults in Neverland! I can't get past that. The only adults in Neverland were the pirates. And do you know, I've always thought that they were all Peter's inventionin a way. Not only that, but maybe Hook was Peter grown up. I'm not sure if he was Peter or if he just came from him, but he was everything that Peter could/might have been as an adult: bitter, lonely, tormented, worst of all old, which, to Peter, were all one in the same.
Which was why when Hook started frigging flying, I nearly died. See, this is another example of Hollywood going for The Big Scene that they think people want to see, instead of staying true to the story. Did Hook not just finish saying that he had no happy thoughts? Gah, they didn't even mind their own script! Okay, so people wanted to see this huge, airborne battle, but it killed me that Hook could fly. The whole idea of Peter Pan was that children could fly, and an adult would always, always have forgotten how, even those with happy thoughts.
Which brings me to the battle, and Wendy's "thimble" resurrecting Peter's spirit. Oh, please gag me with a cliche right now. He didn't need Wendy's kiss or her love, or (how I loathe saying this) his Emotions Awakened!!1111oenone11!eleven in order to win. Peter had Hook from the beginning; there was no question. The only question then was, would Hook see Peter show bad form? And in the book, he did, and that was how Hook died: the clock had run down (Peter had been ticking in place of the crocodile,) and Hook's time was up. He fell screaming "bad form!" and was devoured. Not because the children told him he was old and he couldn't fly anymore. Grrrr.
PJ Hogan sucked out most of the depth of the story and replaced it with crowd-pleasing visuals and cute preteen romance.
I still didn't hate the movie, because Jeremy Sumpter and of course Jason Isaacs saved it.
I honestly didn't think this Jeremy Sumpter kid was going to be any good, but I swear, it seemed to me that he had gotten more out of the original story than any of the writers or the directer. He was the best Peter Pan I could imagine: he was a cocky, self-centered, selfish little boy and he did it very well.
Jason Isaacs apparently did his homework, as well. I find it so odd that the script and direction touched on the few things about Hook that I mentioned in my last post (his eyes, the harpsicord, the poison, his loneliness,) while still managing to replace so much of what was interesting about the book with Blockbuster Cliche. I'm not just saying it because he's gorgeous, but he was such a good James Hook, and the little boy such a good Peter Pan, that in the times when they were on screen together (and the script was canonical,) I was really happy with it, because it was just like I imagined them acting towards each other: Hook was fascinated, disgusted, envious, furious, and touched in a weird way, and Peter was just totally selfish and obsessed with his own joy and victory. I loved the look on Hook's face when he saw Peter and Wendy dancing (even though that scene was nothing like it was in the book, and when they did dance in the book, Hook was nowhere to be found--in fact their dancing scene was eerie and detached instead of the Hollywood Magic the movie made it out to be.) I mean, he was just so beautiful and believable in his torment. Thank you, Jason Isaacs, for finally making me go "SQUEE!" over a Jas Hook that I've always wanted to see. Dark and sinister man! At least there was that. (I'm not saying that because he's a hottie, but let us face facts: he is. I'd see the movie again just for this entire scene, with him sleeping [weirdly, with his head on the desk--nice touch there, I'd never have imagined that,] strapping on the hook and threatening Smee and all of that.)
You know, I think I might even have liked the movie more if I didn't suspect that next, all the dumb fangirls are going to come along with the "OMFG Teh movie was so MAGIC!!111 the beauty of childhood and FAERIES!!!!!111" without understanding the story. Bah! Please move on to the next cliche and leave this story alone. And I shudder to think of the fanfic. Shudder.
Ya know what, though? Could you just imagine if Miyazki had directed this? He would have totally gotten the idea.
Sad to say that I can spoil the movie without spoiling the book. :/
I'm not sure PJ Hogan and I read the same book. It almost seems as if he flipped through a few pages, said, "I'll take this, this, this and this," and then pulled the rest out of...somewhere else. Clearly, clearly he decided for cliche and Hollywood-poignant string-pulling over the original (sub)text.
I might have enjoyed (most of) this movie if I hadn't read the book. But the cliches! The cliches! The whole "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!" scene was so overdone as to be silly. Hogan went for the Big Movie Scene instead of doing it the way the book did it. The book had restraint, damnit, it didn't ever rely on beating you over the head with ideas. I'm not dense, PJ Hogan. I don't need to be battered with Teh Pretty!!!111 and Teh OMFG-ROMANCE!!!11
Speaking of beating the audience over the head, hello! He turned Mrs. Darling's Kiss into a big, obvious thing. WRONG. And who the hell was this "Aunt Millicent" person?
The biggest, HUGEST problem I had with this movie was Wendy. They murdered her. Wendy Moira Angela Darling, getting into trouble at school for drawing a naughty picture. Busting in on Mr. Darling while he was at work. Dreading being an adult! Wendy wanted to be an adult, and she didn't have to go to Neverland to learn that. Wendy Moira Angela Darling, consenting to not only tell stories to pirates, but to being one! Red-handed Jill my ass. It was John who told Hook he wouldn't mind being a pirate called Red-handed Jack, and Wendy was appalled. Wendy went about the ship writing "dirty pig" on everything, and she had so much contempt for Hook throughout that it nearly killed him. This is what I mean when I say that it seems the writers and director picked tiny little things out of the book that they liked, and made up the rest. In the movie, Wendy was much too perky. It looks like they went for the Spunky Female cliche instead of letting her be the strange, restrained yet deep girl that she was. (In fact, in the book, it was almost like Wendy was Superego, Hook was Ego and Peter was Id. How often do you get an Id protagonist and an Ego antagonist? But I just pulled that outta my ass, and maybe I'm reading too much into it.)
What else way way off? Tink's alliance with Hook. WTF? Smee breaking the fourth wall and talking to the camera, for godsake. The fact that the Indians were adults. Adults in Neverland indeed! The book never specified their ages, but seeing them portrayed as adults was so jarring that I nearly dropped my M&Ms all over the floor. Adults in Neverland! I can't get past that. The only adults in Neverland were the pirates. And do you know, I've always thought that they were all Peter's inventionin a way. Not only that, but maybe Hook was Peter grown up. I'm not sure if he was Peter or if he just came from him, but he was everything that Peter could/might have been as an adult: bitter, lonely, tormented, worst of all old, which, to Peter, were all one in the same.
Which was why when Hook started frigging flying, I nearly died. See, this is another example of Hollywood going for The Big Scene that they think people want to see, instead of staying true to the story. Did Hook not just finish saying that he had no happy thoughts? Gah, they didn't even mind their own script! Okay, so people wanted to see this huge, airborne battle, but it killed me that Hook could fly. The whole idea of Peter Pan was that children could fly, and an adult would always, always have forgotten how, even those with happy thoughts.
Which brings me to the battle, and Wendy's "thimble" resurrecting Peter's spirit. Oh, please gag me with a cliche right now. He didn't need Wendy's kiss or her love, or (how I loathe saying this) his Emotions Awakened!!1111oenone11!eleven in order to win. Peter had Hook from the beginning; there was no question. The only question then was, would Hook see Peter show bad form? And in the book, he did, and that was how Hook died: the clock had run down (Peter had been ticking in place of the crocodile,) and Hook's time was up. He fell screaming "bad form!" and was devoured. Not because the children told him he was old and he couldn't fly anymore. Grrrr.
PJ Hogan sucked out most of the depth of the story and replaced it with crowd-pleasing visuals and cute preteen romance.
I still didn't hate the movie, because Jeremy Sumpter and of course Jason Isaacs saved it.
I honestly didn't think this Jeremy Sumpter kid was going to be any good, but I swear, it seemed to me that he had gotten more out of the original story than any of the writers or the directer. He was the best Peter Pan I could imagine: he was a cocky, self-centered, selfish little boy and he did it very well.
Jason Isaacs apparently did his homework, as well. I find it so odd that the script and direction touched on the few things about Hook that I mentioned in my last post (his eyes, the harpsicord, the poison, his loneliness,) while still managing to replace so much of what was interesting about the book with Blockbuster Cliche. I'm not just saying it because he's gorgeous, but he was such a good James Hook, and the little boy such a good Peter Pan, that in the times when they were on screen together (and the script was canonical,) I was really happy with it, because it was just like I imagined them acting towards each other: Hook was fascinated, disgusted, envious, furious, and touched in a weird way, and Peter was just totally selfish and obsessed with his own joy and victory. I loved the look on Hook's face when he saw Peter and Wendy dancing (even though that scene was nothing like it was in the book, and when they did dance in the book, Hook was nowhere to be found--in fact their dancing scene was eerie and detached instead of the Hollywood Magic the movie made it out to be.) I mean, he was just so beautiful and believable in his torment. Thank you, Jason Isaacs, for finally making me go "SQUEE!" over a Jas Hook that I've always wanted to see. Dark and sinister man! At least there was that. (I'm not saying that because he's a hottie, but let us face facts: he is. I'd see the movie again just for this entire scene, with him sleeping [weirdly, with his head on the desk--nice touch there, I'd never have imagined that,] strapping on the hook and threatening Smee and all of that.)
You know, I think I might even have liked the movie more if I didn't suspect that next, all the dumb fangirls are going to come along with the "OMFG Teh movie was so MAGIC!!111 the beauty of childhood and FAERIES!!!!!111" without understanding the story. Bah! Please move on to the next cliche and leave this story alone. And I shudder to think of the fanfic. Shudder.
Ya know what, though? Could you just imagine if Miyazki had directed this? He would have totally gotten the idea.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 06:47 pm (UTC)Hook was okay, but again, didn't do for me what I wanted it to. I was a little resentful that Alan Rickman didn't play Hook. ;)
I'm sort of a fangirl with Peter Pan and all, but I really did expect better from this movie, the way the director was going on and on about keeping it true to the book.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 07:04 pm (UTC)CZ
no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 07:28 pm (UTC)But Dustin Hoffman as an old balding Hook, asking Peter for his wig back ('At least let me have my dignity.'), then proceeding to take that bastard swipe at Peter was classic. ;)
CZ