Bloated, revisionist Pan story loses the plot

JUST like old soldiers, Peter Pan never dies. And he doesn't fade away either - not with a steady procession of Hollywood movies to keep him going. The never-ending story indeed. Despite a clutch of films about JM Barrie's most famous creation (the first was made into a silent movie, released in 1924; the last big-screen incarnation took place in 2003), there always seems to be room for just one more. Enter Pan, a prequel with a revisionist take on the classic tale of a boy who never grows up.

Pan remains a young boy's awfully big adventure at heart but this extravagant, big-budget, effects-bloated fantasy directed by Joe Wright and written by Jason Fuchs, is also a bold - and not always successful - departure from the norm. Its inspiration comes from conventional sources, plus one or two less obvious choices.

The opening sequence takes place in World War II London, at the orphanage where 12-year-old Peter (Levi Miller, suitably wide-eyed) has lived since he was a newborn, deposited on the doorstep by a mother (Amanda Seyfried) whose prescient parting words prepare him for future deeds: "You are extraordinary - more than you can imagine."