Pan: silly fun.

Every once in a while a movie comes out that pretty much has the effects button taped, glued, nailed, stapled and weighted down by elephant.

Those movies are pretty often/pretty much/pretty crap. Like Mortal Kombat Annihilation or the Star Wars prequels. Those movie that honestly believe that flashy lights is all that's needed to make a good movie (forget acting, story or even common logic).

But sometimes effect movies do remember to incorporate good acting and a solid script. And -as such- result in fun rides like Jumanji, Journey 1 and 2 or -more recently- Goosebumps.

And then there are those movies that fall in between. But with the highlight that it knows just how silly the stuff is that they can do with the computer...and decide to go happy crazy with it. Pan is exactly such a movie. A scene chewing Jackman, evil nuns, Pop-songs, flamethrowers, strange physics -even without the flying- and every five minutes a crazy action scene just for the fun of it. Naturally this movie was released in 3D.

(Let's be honest, the only reason the movie begins during the second world war was to have a Pirate ship versus spitfire fight.)

Is it a good movie? Nah, forgettable. Is it a fun movie? Absolutely. Perfect for boxing day.

Pan has a great soundtrack. All the actors are having an absolute blast. And there are even quite some good shots hidden in the mumbo jumbo of fast editing, like this one.

The story however...something about a prophecy and some other stuff. Basically it's the hero as messiah story that gives the movie the minimal of glue to get from one action sequence to the next. But the movie isn't serious enough to want you to mind it, so why should you? Just have a good time. It does have quite the body count though -including kids. What is this? Rufio all over again?