I had recently seen Rhys Ifans, who plays James Hook (and later, Captain Hook) in Anonymous, but the clincher was Anna Friel, who played the delightful Chuck in Pushing Daisies. I expected Friel to play a more fanciful character, but she instead took on the role of the vicious female pirate Captain Liz Bonny. But more on that later.
The story begins in Victorian London where Peter (Charlie Rowe) is part of a group of thieving hooligans, headed up by James Hook (Rhys Ifans). By day, Hook runs a fencing academy, but by night, he and the boys steal what they can to finance their livelihood. When Hook asks the boys to take on a very dangerous theft job at a high end jewelry store, he later reconsiders, but Peter rallies the boys to complete the job in order to impress Hook. Peter can't wait to grow up and be taken seriously, as Hook's partner and not simply his ward. The robbery goes horribly wrong when Hook intervenes, only to have the whole crew, except for Peter, vanish into thin air, leaving a mysterious glowing orb in their wake.
Peter becomes determined to find his friends and mentor and manages to activate the orb himself and get transported to Neverland, but not soon enough to prevent his friends from being taken by a ruthless band of pirates led by Captain Liz Bonny (Anna Friel). Bonny enlightens Hook as to the fact that they are all now trapped on Neverland, never aging, never escaping; however, she doesn't know that a man named Flood (Charles Dance, Game of Thrones) has actually created a way to go back and forth from Neverland. As Peter fights to rescue his friends, he discovers that Hook has become entranced with Captain Liz, whose sole goal is to steal the magic dust that allows the Tree People on Neverland to fly. Peter must join forces with Flood, a fairy named Tinker Bell (voiced by Keira Knightley), and the tribe of Kaw Indians on Neverland, of whom Aaya AKA Tiger Lily (Q'orianka Kilcher) is a member, in order to prevent the pirates from destroying the home of the Tree People, taking the magic dust, and making their way back to England for reinforcements.
First off, Neverland is a three hour investment, so be prepared. I broke it up by watching Part 1 on the first night and Part 2 on a subsequent night. Part 1 is pretty much all set-up and build-up, and I wasn't particularly impressed. However, if you stick it out, Part 2 is actually much better. Neverland doesn't cover any of what you have seen in the past in the Disney film, but it takes you pretty much right up to it and I enjoyed the twists and turns to get there. That being said, this is pretty much a completely CG movie, so keep that in mind. Some of it looks pretty cheesy, especially the fire, and when Peter flies, he looks very awkward most of the time. The fighting scenes were also pretty weak, but the acting was solid. Rhys Ifans' transformation from mentor to power-crazed pirate was impressive, although Friel's role as the pirate Bonny was a bit disturbing. She nailed the part, but she was just a bit too loony for my tastes. One neat aspect is the fact that Bob Hoskins reprises his role of Smee from Hook and he doesn't look a day older, although he is a bit of a cannibal in this film. While the fighting is faily amateur, there are some scenes filled with sexual overtures and such, so keep that in mind for the young ones.
I'm not sure if seeing Neverland on Blu-ray in high def made it look better or worse, but aside from the really fake CG flames, I'd have to say better. The scenes in London and the far off vistas of Neverland look quite beautiful, but I must warn you that SyFy loves their gigantic "creatures" so naturally, the famed crocodile is absolutely gigantic with 6 legs and red eyes. It wouldn't be a SyFy production without at least one ginormous monster, though. Oh, and there's a huge, man-eating spider as well. There is a handful of special features available, including commentary, cast interviews and a featurette on the green screen aspect. Of these, the most interesting was the green screen featurette because it showed me just how much of the film was green screen and done in studio.
I can't heartily recommend Neverland to you unless you are a huge Peter Pan fan, but if you'd like to see a re-imagining of how things could have begun for Peter, Hook and The Lost Boys, give this one a rent. While Part 1 is a bit tedious, Part 2 is pretty enjoyable.
