The English director Joe Wright showed off serious ambitions with “Atonement,” “Pride &Prejudice” (the 2005 version), and the arty “Anna Karenina.” But it seems he really wanted to be Steven Spielberg.
The proof is in “Pan,” a splashy, big-budget prequel to J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” story in which Wright lets his Spielbergian tendencies off the — well, hook.
The movie’s full of flying pirate ships and childlike wonder and people howling like crazy. In fact, it’s better at those things than Spielberg’s own fling at the “Pan” saga. “Hook” (1991), which looks at Peter in adulthood, may be Spielberg’s weakest movie.
“Pan” is set, for no reason that I can figure out, during the Second World War. Peter (played by Levi Miller) is an orphan lad whisked away to a brutal work camp in one of the aforementioned flying pirate ships.
The place is ruled by the evil dictator-pirate Blackbeard. This wild, cartoonish figure is played by Hugh Jackman — sneering through a twirly mustache — who seems to be having a ball. Actually it’s his best performance since the first “X-Men” picture.
Some of Barrie’s other characters turn up: Tiger Lily (soulful-eyed Rooney Mara) is here in a groovy headdress, but Captain Hook isn’t yet a captain, and he still has both hands. In fact, he’s the movie’s grown-up hero, played by Garret Hedlund (“Unbroken”) with a dash of Harrison Ford and a humorous voice that sounds like John Huston.
A lot of this is fun, and the design is imaginative. The pagan Neverland is a jungly playground, and Blackbeard’s domain — in which hundreds of kidnapped miners dig in search of a magical ore called Pixum — is scary enough to be alarming.
One risky idea falls on its face: The miners sing work songs made up of Nirvana and Ramones tunes, led by Blackbeard himself. (Maybe he’s so mean because his rockstar ambitions didn’t pan out.) With Hugh Jackman out there leading the chorus, you could be forgiven for mistaking this for a grim “Les Miserables” outtake.
When it comes time for “Pan” to mount a grand finale, most of the $150 million budget hits the screen. It’s a big digital 3D lollapalooza, but I found myself losing focus at almost exactly the moment the film turned itself into an amusement-park ride.
“Pan” feels a little stitched-together; the peppy character-driven parts don’t entirely mesh with the video-game spectacle, and it suffers mood swings. It earns points for the sheer moxie of taking an idea nobody wanted and making it reasonably diverting.
“Pan” (2 1/2 stars)
A prequel to “Peter Pan,” in which the pre-Neverland orphan boy (Levi Miller) is kidnapped into slavery to the pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman, in amusing form). Director Joe Wright lays on the Spielberg-style action, and the movie’s fun until the inevitable digital finale.
Rating: PG, for violence
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood Cinemas, Meridian, Thornton Place Stadium 14, Woodinville, Blue Fox Drive-In, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor Plaza
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