When I first saw the trailer for Neverland a couple months ago, I got really, really excited. I'm a huge Peter Pan fan and decided I absolutely had to watch this. Well, even with all the hype, I was not really impressed. Here's my take on the good and the bad:
The Good:
The acting was awesome. Very good for a Syfy TV movie. The cast did a great job with their roles. Ifans did a great job of showing Hook's downfall and Anna Friel played her character very well to help him towards it. Peter was decent, but it could've been better (or worse). I expected them to do more with Bob Hoskins as Smee, but he just had a small supporting role. One of my favorite movies of all time is Hook, where he had a lot bigger role that he took off with. This one is a lot smaller, so it was hard to see how good he really is at the character. The special effects were decent. Again, they could've been better, but it is what I expect out of Syfy. The music was pretty good, but nothing compared to the genius of John Williams (composer for Hook).
The Bad:
The story. Oh man, the story. Well, was it really THAT bad? No, but for me, it is the most important part. Without spoilers, It took a lot of the "magic" out of Peter Pan. The beginning and midway through the first half, it was pretty good, but once it got to the last 20-30 minutes of the first half, I was extremely disappointed. Also, while they did tie it to the rest of the Peter Pan stories, they didn't do it well enough. They had their little references here and there, but I felt like it was just thrown in there and rushed, especially at the very ending. There are also a lot of plot holes and discrepancies when it comes to relating it to the original Peter Pan story (and others).
Overall: 3/5. For a Syfy TV movie/series, I guess this isn't so bad. Tin Man on the other hand was possibly the best thing they have done, and this doesn't even come close to it.
The Good:
The acting was awesome. Very good for a Syfy TV movie. The cast did a great job with their roles. Ifans did a great job of showing Hook's downfall and Anna Friel played her character very well to help him towards it. Peter was decent, but it could've been better (or worse). I expected them to do more with Bob Hoskins as Smee, but he just had a small supporting role. One of my favorite movies of all time is Hook, where he had a lot bigger role that he took off with. This one is a lot smaller, so it was hard to see how good he really is at the character. The special effects were decent. Again, they could've been better, but it is what I expect out of Syfy. The music was pretty good, but nothing compared to the genius of John Williams (composer for Hook).
The Bad:
The story. Oh man, the story. Well, was it really THAT bad? No, but for me, it is the most important part. Without spoilers, It took a lot of the "magic" out of Peter Pan. The beginning and midway through the first half, it was pretty good, but once it got to the last 20-30 minutes of the first half, I was extremely disappointed. Also, while they did tie it to the rest of the Peter Pan stories, they didn't do it well enough. They had their little references here and there, but I felt like it was just thrown in there and rushed, especially at the very ending. There are also a lot of plot holes and discrepancies when it comes to relating it to the original Peter Pan story (and others).
Overall: 3/5. For a Syfy TV movie/series, I guess this isn't so bad. Tin Man on the other hand was possibly the best thing they have done, and this doesn't even come close to it.