Starring Levi Miller and Hugh Jackman. Rated PG.

For all the digital 3-D wonder created in Pan, it veers a surprising amount into Dickensian darkness. Apparently, director Joe Wright missed J. M. Barrie’s memo on “lovely, wonderful thoughts”.

The Peter Pan origin story follows the title character as he’s raised in an orphanage that would give Oliver Twist nightmares. When pirates steal him and some other boys away to Neverland, they’re forced to join an army of child slaves mining pixie dust. Scenes of Hugh Jackman’s evil Blackbeard lording over their gaping mine will instantly make you think of Mad Max: Fury Road.

And what’s the pixie dust for? Forget fairies and flying: an addicted Blackbeard inhales it, opiumlike, through a frightening, steampunk-style gas mask to reverse the ravages of aging.

At least that obsessive quest for eternal youth is getting somewhere close to Barrie’s original themes. But much of the author’s fun is lost here in a bleak, albeit richly wrought, universe.

That’s not to say there aren’t some jaw-dropping action sequences, including swooping midair battles on flying pirate ships that hover over the mine. And the land of the “savages”, a Rooney Mara–led rainbow nation that lives in the forest, is a lush spectacle of circus tents, pompom headdresses, and trampoline martial-arts battles.

The strong-willed but sprightly Levi Miller is a discovery as Pan, and Jackman tears into the role of the dark-haired dandy with dark eye circles and bad teeth. Less successful is Garrett Hedlund’s pre-pirate Hook character, both hands intact throughout the movie. As an Indiana Jones type, he affects grating ’40s Hollywood mannerisms.

The story, though full of thrill-ride-worthy adventures, never stops long enough to develop characters or relationships—something Barrie knew how to do so well, especially in his heartbreaking bond between Peter and Wendy. But Wendy’s not here to help, and neither is Tinker Bell. Too bad, because the latter might have sprinkled a little much-needed pixie dust on this overloaded production.