Not as awful as some would have you believe, but this revisionist updating of the unforgettable Peter Pan tale is a bland misfire from the start. None of the elements gel together into a satisfying viewing experience. There is so little magic or energy on screen that it seems impossible to believe that a director the caliber of Steven Spielberg is responsible for the final result. The story imagines Peter Pan as an adult workaholic husband and father of two children (a boy and a girl). He has no memory of his past in Neverland and makes a habit of neglecting his family. While visiting Granny Wendy in London, his children are kidnapped by nemesis Captain Hook and, with Tinkerbell's aid, Peter returns to Neverland. Unfortunately, he has no clue on how regain his old magic to save his children. One certainly must give credit for a novel and promising concept, but it never takes flight. Robin Williams, certainly one of cinema's most energetic comedic actors, seems constricted as Peter. Dustin Hoffman seems to be having a fine time as Captain Hook, but for a legendary villain he is surprisingly toothless and devoid of menace. The film's worst misstep is in the handling of The Lost Boys. Whereas the characters as related by J. M. Barrie and in other cinematic incarnations seem ones to capture the imagination, Spielberg and his writers have re-imagined them as glorified skateboard hoodlums whose shenanigans inspire more tedium than magic. These boys are dreadfully uninteresting, as is Peter's irritating son, played by the usually reliable Charlie Korsmo. Viewers should be on his side after the neglect suffered by the hands of his dad, but he emerges as vacuous as his adolescent compatriots. Ironically, for a film that features a stellar casting trinity of leads, they are oddly wasted in favor of the tiresome adolescent cast. The women in the film really have it bad. While Peter has two kidnapped children, one could easily forget that his young daughter was held hostage considering that she is all but forgotten in favor of young Korsmo. Similarly, Maggie Smith is wasted in a brief cameo as the aged Wendy and Caroline Goodall is left behind in London to fend for herself. Julia Roberts may have had a fighting chance if anyone had a clear conception on their vision of Tinkerbell. Instead of the mischievous sprite with a huge jealous streak, we get a wishy-washy tomboy who has little to do during the course of the film. The much-celebrated sets are alternately busy and tacky, and the editing is amateurish. Some scenes are cut so clumsily that it is unbelievable that someone with Spielberg's talents failed to notice, or perhaps he simply did not care. For a much better take on the Peter Pan legend, look for P. J. Hogan's Peter Pan.
