How others will see it. This film is designed to appeal to older girls. Adult males will find it tedious, aside from a few innocent but rather erotic moments involving Wendy and her playmates Pan and Hook.
Staged performances of Peter Pan traditionally cast the title role with a neutered woman, such as Sandy Duncan or Cathy Rigby. The true reason for this is to fill a major role with a known actor who has box office potential. This movie version thankfully dispenses with tradition, and casts an older boy, Jeremy Sumpter.
How I felt about it. Wendy is the star, and not Pan. Wendy makes the key decisions: to enter the fantasy world, to side with Pan instead of Hook, and to return to her less cinematic life in England. She is fearless in Neverland because it is her own invention. All the characters are as they were in her stories. The real question is whether the whole episode is another of her fairy tales, this time involving her, and brought to life by the magic (or, rather, machinery) of an expensive Hollywood production.
Parents should perhaps worry about the effect of the violence in Peter Pan on their children. The key confrontation between Pan and Hook ends with the latter consumed whole by an alligator. Which wouldn't be so bad (Hook is, after all, a villain) except his demise is encouraged by gleeful chanting among the children. Mr. Darling's stern, aged employer is bowled over twice by the large family dog; the violence left on the cutting room floor but certainly implied, and for laughs.
Wendy is shot down by an arrow, and survives unharmed only because it is her own fantasy. She's the only female with personality in Neverland, aside from Tinkerbell, a jealous fairy who causes as much mischief as Hook. As Neverland's only white woman/girl, Wendy is immediately placed atop the social hierarchy. She's courted by both Hook and Pan, and becomes the adopted 'mother' to the Lost Boys, who are kept from Lord of the Flies tribal warfare by their worship of Pan.
Wendy's two brothers, John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), are largely along for the ride, although they have their own rare moments of individual heroism and adventure.
Hook isn't an effectual villain. He's good at killing disposable pirates (the violence thing, again), and he's able to get Pan again and again into a tight spot. But he always postpones executing Pan until he is able to escape, since Hook's only purpose as a character is to play a foil to Pan. Likewise, Pan's activities are uninteresting without Wendy, who has the best chance of luring him to leave Neverland, and grow up.