Jason C
Reviewer

      Americans need another Peter Pan movie as much as they need hooks for hands. Regardless, P.J. Hogan delves into the world of the boyhood icon with this new version of an old story.
 
      Long before pirates got their name from stealing music on the Internet, J.M. Barrie’s classic “Peter Pan” provided generations of children with a swashbuckling tale of a boy who refused to grow up. Young boys everywhere recognize the pirate who lost his hand to a crocodile that ticks like an old clock, but this film presupposes: What if Captain Hook was just a lonely, old man, and what if Peter Pan’s major downfall involved his failed attempt at love? Interesting suggestions, to be sure, but this rendition is pale in comparison to Disney’s animated masterpiece.
 
      This film is especially pale with its drab cinematography. Each scene (particularly an action-packed sword fight between Peter Pan and Hook) is bathed in monotonous, singular colors. Whereas this year’s monstrous success “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” used color to push the spirit of adventure into every scene, “Peter Pan” seems content with a blue-gray camera tint that transforms the magical tale into something decidedly British, and decidedly boring. When sword jabs and flying antics seem duller than daring, the color choice turns this film into a wash of gray.
 
      But that isn’t to say “Peter Pan” is a bad film. It weaves an enchanting tale that shows kids of all ages that Harry Potter is not the only kid who can demonstrate the magic of storytelling. Then again, maybe magical live-action films need only Jason Isaacs, who stars as Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter and as both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in “Peter Pan.”
 
      The film also succeeds at giving this children’s tale a more adult psychological complex, with some of Barrie’s subtler subtexts such as Captain Hook’s middle-age crisis and Mr. Darling’s social ineptitude.
 
     More than anything else, however, this “Peter Pan” succeeds triumphantly in returning the precocious boy role to an actual male: Jeremy Sumpter, who played young Matthew McConaughey in the under-appreciated “Frailty.” Outside of a high school production or two, having an actual boy play this boyhood icon seems a complete rarity. Sumpter plays the role more as a macho and stubborn adventurer than as the frolicking nymph portrayed by female Peter Pans.
 
      Golden Globe nominee Ludivine Sagnier, from the deliciously sexy “Swimming Pool”, does her best as Tinkerbell, but with constant pouting faces and an annoying disposition, she hardly seems worth saving when the time comes for everyone around the world to believe in fairies. Of course, the animated Tinkerbell annoyed audiences, but she was cute enough to invoke pity anyway.
 
      For those looking for a magical adventure into Never Never Land (no–not the Michael Jackson ranch), the 1950s Disney animated film is the surest bet.
 
      This live action version does not have the very racist song “What Makes the Red Man Red?”, but it is also missing some of the magic that brought the story of “Peter Pan” into homes everywhere. Like its band of heroes, this film occasionally soars, but spends most of its time stuck on the ground.