Steven Spielberg has publicly mentioned that Hook is his least favorite out of his filmography, and it’s not hard to see why. Although I don’t think it’s his worst, it’s one of the most forgettable and bland Spielberg films, with some great moments, and others that are better left forgotten. While this should have been a fresh take on the Peter Pan story, it turned in to a movie lacking anything that truly made me care about it.
As mentioned, I really do like the idea of Peter Pan growing up. However, it’s execution was incredibly poor through the script. It was full of cringe-worthy, awful, and forgettable dialogue that never seemed to mean anything. And then there’s the acting, I can’t attribute all of this to the actors, because there are some greats in the movie, but it just doesn’t live up to what it should be. Robin Williams was one of the best comedic actors ever, but this movie wastes his character so that almost three quarters of the film is spent with Robin Williams playing a boring character in a desk job. This is the antithesis of the character Robin Williams is good at playing. Don’t get me wrong, Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have their moments, but it’s almost as if they are wasted in favor of having the awful child actors fill large portions of the story. This is the element I simply couldn’t stand. There were seriously some moments I laughed due to the poor dialogue/acting in some scenes. To put it simply, it seemed that Spielberg was forcing the message down our throats. While it tries to have that emotional message, it also attempts for comedy, which is very low brow throughout. This is reflected in everything throughout the film. While the production design is likely the most praised element of the movie, I thought it looked incredibly fake, and the colors weren’t what they should have been for the movie.
Overall, I’m not a huge fan of Hook. While it does get better towards the end, it’s largely just too bland to make me care for it in the slightest. 5.7/10
Another Flipping Film Blog 