Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Pan

Ok, it was super hot again in San Diego, so the wife and I escaped the heat and saw Pan.  I had read bad things about it, but was pleasantly surprised and entertained.  

The movie starts with Peter in an orphanage run by a cruel penguinesque nun who is hoarding all the food like a jerk.  Peter notices that boys are missing.  Apparently Blackbeard the Pirate has been buying orphans to work in his fairy dust mine in Neverland.  One night Peter and his friend are awakened to find the Pirates snatching orphans from their beds and whisked off to a flying pirate ship up above.  The film seems to be set during the blitz of WWII for some reason, maybe to add more excitement and action to the flying ship scene?  Peter ends up in Neverland working at the mine with Mr. Hook.  

So, this movie is a prequel to the Peter Pan cartoon by Disney.  I never read any of J.M. Barre's works, but I started reading Peter and Wendy after seeing this movie.  So far it is very good.  Barre is an interesting literary figure.  I did not know that the original Peter Pan was an infant in Barre's The Little White Bird.  Then the Peter Pan I know from the cartoon is more from Barre's play Peter Pan and from the book Peter and Wendy.  The other interesting thing I did now know was that Peter was originally played by a female in the first showing of the play and then on from there.  I remember the recent version of Pan they put on the boobtube recently had a female playing Peter, but I guess it is tradition.  

They used Nirvana's Teenspirit for the scene at the mine, and also the Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop later on, that was surprising.  Of course Hugh Jackman plays Blackbeard the Pirate, who is keeping himself eternally young by smoking the fairy dust he has the orphans mine.  Jackman is the consummate professional and is reinvented to be almost unrecognizable and is a bad guy.  Hook is played by Garrett Hedlund, who seems to be channeling Tom Waits throughout the film via his voice.  

One personal subtext to the movie is that my wife had just done the Color Run that morning while I slept in, and the scene where the Pirates attack the natives has colorful explosions similar to what they do at the color run.  We both looked at each other during that scene in a brief moment of recognition.  

Peter Pan is full of doubt about his powers and identity until the end of the film, so it was a nice ending to an action filled romp.  I am very interested in the adventures of the lost boys and their tree home that I remember from the Disney cartoon.  Like the minions, it would be fun to see some more of their adventures, but maybe that will be satisfied by finishing Peter and Wendy.  I am going to rewatch the Peter Pan cartoon soon.  

The Martian

Talk about some NASA propaganda, jimminy xmas.  Everyone is going to be sciencing the shit out of everything for a few months.  I have to admit I did get a little caught up in the excitement of it all.  But the good thing about Apollo 13 was you saw much of the hard work that saved those astronauts.  But in the Martian you find yourself thinking about the Fast and Furious franchise and how improbable the stunts and action are.  In one scene Matt Damon cuts a hole in his suit and "iron mans" it over to Chastain.  That reminds me, Chaistain was in that other propaganda piece Zero Dark Torture.  Our military complex overlords must like her for some reason.  

But seriously folks, this is an entertaining movie that attempts Apollo 13 heights, but does not quite get there.  I definitely enjoyed it though.