What if "Pan" sucks?

I don't know about you but I had some excitement for the 2015 reimagining of Peter Pan. This probably is because I loved the story and lore of Peter Pan since I was a child, and the idea of seeing another reinterpretation of Peter Pan excited me. I admit I had some concerns when I first saw the trailers. For example: Why the hell is Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily?! It's been legendary on how with each interpretation of Peter Pan, there was always some racial controversy over how each iteration uses the Native American based tribe that appears in each film. Some adaptations, like Hook, ignored them and didn't even show them at all. From what I hear, rather than being Native Americans in this adaptation, they are a tribe that is native to Neverland and that they incorporate different races instead. Well that's fine and all, but I still ask WHY IS ROONEY MARA AS TIGER LILLY THEN?!? It's great that you want to have a more racially diverse cast, but why take the one racially diverse character and make her white? That logic fails in my opinion. Other than that though from what I saw in the trailers it looks like Hugh Jackman is having a ton of fun as the villainous Blackbeard, and the effects seem colorfully magical and whimsical (except for those "Neverbirds". They look like something out of Pixar), and the trailers were really cool.

HOWEVER, there are a few concerns I have before going into the movie when I see it this weekend other than the aforementioned casting of Rooney Mara: why is the character of James Hook a cowboy-like charmer who befriends Peter? Why does Rooney Mara look so god damn silly under all that make up? Why is "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" listed in the official soundtrack? All these questions give me pause, as well as some of the reviews I've seen from those who watched early screenings such as IGN.com and Schmoes Know.

Now that I've listed some concerns, what if "Pan" gets panned (pun intended) by critics and fails to fly in the box office? Well I doubt it will kill any adaptations of Peter Pan since the book is public domain and carries a recognizable brand name character that in my opinion kind of needs to be retold every so many years. I do believe if it does fail critically and financially, it will certainly slow down any retellings of fairy tale retellings for a while. It's not likely it will kill the fantasy genre either. It'll take a small break while Super Hero films keep on raking in money and then find a resurgence when the time is right and audiences are ready.

"Pan" flies to theaters on October 9th, 2015


Oh yeah, you're probably wondering about "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in Pan, right? Here's a link. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/BImwyyCm6j8