Sky Movies gives us a two part TV Miniseries which details the origins of Peter Pan, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook, here starting out as a gang of London thieves, with 'Jimmy' Hook a fencing instructor and ex-socialite. One day, sent out by a mysterious client, the group come upon a magic orb, which ends up transporting them to, where else, Neverland. Of course, this isn't the first time the orb has brought people to Neverland, as the group soon discover both a Native American tribe and a band of Pirates. Loyalties are tested, promises broken and destruction awakens as Hook and Peter's once strong bond is gradually torn apart.
Too compressed and often in a hurry, 'Neverland' is never outright boring, mainly thanks to a terrific cast, but it squanders them and its premise with indecisive, clunky storytelling and a lack of charm or humour. Writer-Director Nick Willing assembles a lot of great ideas (having Hook and Peter being friends in a pseudo-paternal relationship, exploring the nature & history of Neverland, seeing Hook's downfall and temptation to evil, the ever present fears of death and growing up, much lie the original take) but is also trying to balance them out with action setpieces and a number of auxillary subplots (including one involving a secret society and alchemy, another involving the fairies and their city, yet another involving the pirates trying to take over the fairies and steal their magic, leading to yet another WE'LL 'RULE THE WORLD' plot complete with bloated monologues) and well, you can already see what's wrong.
Despite the generous two and a half hour runtime, the series is in such a rush to do everything that a lot of ideas feel half baked, and are not allowed a full resolution. The first episode in particular has enough material and plot threads to last two or three episodes of a longer miniseries. Heck, for a supposed 'prequel', there are a number of inconsistencies and errors that don't quite match up with the original take (Peter's memory is finicky but intact, Tinkerbell is a little too wise and ultimately, how Peter travels without the orb in the end is never explained.) And the mediocre action, complete with crash zooms to make it more 'intense', and lax CGI, even by TV standards, don't exactly help matters either.
A real shame as the cast here are quite solid. We have a decent selection of child actors, with Charlie Rowe doing a fairly good job as the mischievous yet charismatic Peter (though he almost never shuts up during the first episode and Willing keeps giving him exposition to say). However, this is very much Rhys Ifans' show as Hook, and he absolutely nails; by turns tragic, lovable and threatening, Ifans commands the screen every time he's on. Supporting them are the likes of Anna Friel as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Charles Dance as the alchemist, Q'orianka Kilcher as Aaya (Tiger Lilly) and Charlotte Atkinson/Kiera Knightley as Tinker Bell, body and voice respectively. They are all good, but don't get a whole lot to do, with Dance relegated mainly to exposition about Neverland and the orb. Oh, and Bob Hoskins is back as Smee, but he is wasted with no real material to work with.
In the end, 'Neverland' isn't horrific television, but it is really pedestrian and ultimately, disappointing. Everything here was assembled to make it work, and yet, a muddled script that tries to do so much with so little time just leads to a great big mess, and not something I'll be desperate to see again. Say what you wish about 'Hook', at least it had charm and knew what it wanted to be. This doesn't, and that's just sad.
Too compressed and often in a hurry, 'Neverland' is never outright boring, mainly thanks to a terrific cast, but it squanders them and its premise with indecisive, clunky storytelling and a lack of charm or humour. Writer-Director Nick Willing assembles a lot of great ideas (having Hook and Peter being friends in a pseudo-paternal relationship, exploring the nature & history of Neverland, seeing Hook's downfall and temptation to evil, the ever present fears of death and growing up, much lie the original take) but is also trying to balance them out with action setpieces and a number of auxillary subplots (including one involving a secret society and alchemy, another involving the fairies and their city, yet another involving the pirates trying to take over the fairies and steal their magic, leading to yet another WE'LL 'RULE THE WORLD' plot complete with bloated monologues) and well, you can already see what's wrong.
Despite the generous two and a half hour runtime, the series is in such a rush to do everything that a lot of ideas feel half baked, and are not allowed a full resolution. The first episode in particular has enough material and plot threads to last two or three episodes of a longer miniseries. Heck, for a supposed 'prequel', there are a number of inconsistencies and errors that don't quite match up with the original take (Peter's memory is finicky but intact, Tinkerbell is a little too wise and ultimately, how Peter travels without the orb in the end is never explained.) And the mediocre action, complete with crash zooms to make it more 'intense', and lax CGI, even by TV standards, don't exactly help matters either.
A real shame as the cast here are quite solid. We have a decent selection of child actors, with Charlie Rowe doing a fairly good job as the mischievous yet charismatic Peter (though he almost never shuts up during the first episode and Willing keeps giving him exposition to say). However, this is very much Rhys Ifans' show as Hook, and he absolutely nails; by turns tragic, lovable and threatening, Ifans commands the screen every time he's on. Supporting them are the likes of Anna Friel as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Charles Dance as the alchemist, Q'orianka Kilcher as Aaya (Tiger Lilly) and Charlotte Atkinson/Kiera Knightley as Tinker Bell, body and voice respectively. They are all good, but don't get a whole lot to do, with Dance relegated mainly to exposition about Neverland and the orb. Oh, and Bob Hoskins is back as Smee, but he is wasted with no real material to work with.
In the end, 'Neverland' isn't horrific television, but it is really pedestrian and ultimately, disappointing. Everything here was assembled to make it work, and yet, a muddled script that tries to do so much with so little time just leads to a great big mess, and not something I'll be desperate to see again. Say what you wish about 'Hook', at least it had charm and knew what it wanted to be. This doesn't, and that's just sad.