A miniseries examining the secret origins of Peter Pan, Captain Hook and The Lost Boys, “Neverland” comes to us from writer-director Nick Willing and two producers named Robert Halmi (Sr. & Jr.), all of whom gave us Syfy’s quite underwhelming earlier miniseries “Tin Man” (2007) and “Alice” (2009).
It stars Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel, Charles Dance, a youngster named Charlie Rowe and, weirdly, Bob Hoskins, who reprises his role from Steven Spielberg’s least accomplished directorial effort, 1991’s “Hook.”
If you’ve seen “Tin Man” and “Alice,” you know what to expect: boring characters, undercooked visual effects and curious behavior.
... It is, unsurprisingly, not the least bit fun. ...
... a thudding, literal-minded bore ...
... cleverly conceived, at times visually lovely, but criminally long ...
... Instead of soaring, the prequel to the beloved story of Peter Pan lands with a thud. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
If you yearn for the days of high-quality, big-budget, fantasy miniseries, skip Syfy's "Neverland." … Everything in "Neverland" is a quest as characters run from one large set piece to another without much character development except in minor strokes that are predictable and rudimentary. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… anything with the Halmi name attached to it pretty much becomes the show that modern special-effects technology forgot. ... Oh, well, it makes for a mildly enjoyable story and it's probably best not to overthink things. …
… The overly blended result may be as much Dickens, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling as it is J.M. Barrie, but it's still an appealing one. …
… Rowe struggles to register, Ifans appears half asleep, Keira Knightley is wasted as the voice of Tinkerbell, and the special effects vary from serviceable to laughable. Instead of soaring, Neverland barely hovers. …
… adds clever new twists to the origin story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook while remaining unpretentiously faithful to the adventurous spirit of the original. …
... To say it is less dreadful than recent similarly themed co-productions unleashed under the Halmis' shingle is accurate, but also qualifies as damnation with faint sprinkles of fairy dust. …
9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Syfy.
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