Or, to go by its full title, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
Kath and I have seen it twice. The first time I liked it. Second time I loved it.
Spoilers follow:
I have to say, when I see people complaining that the film (and its predecessor) is difficult to follow, it makes me feel better over fans making the same slam at my work on, say, “Supergirl.”
Because I had zero trouble following “Dead Man’s Chest” and even less here.
Whereas DMC was essentially a series of spectacular set pieces strung together through a sometimes uneven narrative, PC3 builds more steadily, driven less by events than by character development, shifting alliances, and double and triple crosses. Wonderfully acted by actors who were clearly having a great time (well, maybe not so much when fifty tons of water was hammering them during the climax, but otherwise…), well written with no moment so epic that they couldn’t mange to throw him some little bit of business of a smaller, personal nature, and amazingly directed. Much will be made of the astounding battle in the maelstrom with Jack Sparrow dueling Jones atop a beam, but for my money the single most amazing sequence in the film is when a stunned Lord Beckett is walking down the steps of his ship in slow motion while it literally explodes all around him, yet he remains unscathed.
Are there things that bugged me? Yeah, some. Yes, there were hints to Tia Dalma’s true nature in the previous film, but the entire Calypso thing could have been set up better in the second film…and considering they were shot at the same time, there’s no excuse for not having done so. It also stunned me to learn that the kraken, such a major part of the second film, died in between movies.
But for every gripe, there’s something to balance out. The sequence with Elizabeth hysterical over the fate of her father, or the wrenching fate of Will Turner, or the hilariously phallic battle of Jack Sparrow and Barbossa’s telescopes. And Keith Richards perfectly utilized as Captain Teague, Jack’s father. I swear, I’d be happy watching an entire film with the two of them.
Overall I thought it was brilliant. And if you saw it and didn’t stay through to the end of the credits, then wow. Sucks to be you.
PAD
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Scavenger: Isla de Muerta sank? *hits Wikipedia* Huh. So it did. I don’t remember that. I guess I’ll just have to watch DMC again. For research purposes. *nods sagely*
PAD: I wonder how willing Elizabeth really was to spend time with any of them. I wager that the only people that she held (mostly) positive feelings for were Will, Jack and Jack’s pirates (Gibbs, Cotton, and Marty). She stuck by the others out of necessity, and possibly a sense of duty.
El hombre Malo: I agree. The shot of the pirates on the sea floor was iconic. Jones was awesome, but his crew didn’t really compare.
I decidedly did not love it. It missed a lot of the charm of the first, and there were a lot of throw-aways ( Tia Dama/Calypso- Davy Jones endings, Sao Feng ). It became the Elizabeth Swan/Pirate Queen story. Oh yeah there was a guy named Jack Sparrow in there somewhere. And Norrington…don’t get me started……why do third ins series movies always suck like a broken Hoover ( SW-ROTJ, Superman 3, Spiderman3, Batman 3, POTC 3….)
Back to the Future 3 and LOTR 3 being the exceptions.
I’ll never get the whole premise of the Ant-Hero. Everyone in this trilogy has feet of clay. There is not one person I could admire or fuels my soul. Movies that glorify what should be the villains (Gangstas, Mafia, Pirates, etc.) bore me. What value can I get from such stories, unless they’re tragedies, such as the Godfather series. Now, if you stuck with my comment this long, you might be asking why did I bother to go and waste 3 hrs. of my life? My wife likes Johnny Depp.
I liked the movie the only major flaws I could see where that the whole Calypso thing went nowhere, the placing of the heart on the Dutchman made no sense, the crosses were a bit boring, and I never really got into Lord Beckett’s whole charchter like what is his history especially with Jack? Also it never managed to top DMC’s wheel sword fight,the final bout with Jone’s could have been more…
I liked the movie the only major flaws I could see where that the whole Calypso thing went nowhere, the placing of the heart on the Dutchman made no sense, the crosses were a bit boring, and I never really got into Lord Beckett’s whole charchter like what is his history especially with Jack? Also it never managed to top DMC’s wheel sword fight,the final bout with Jone’s could have been more…
I’m seeing the usual complaints about this movie (too long, plot holes, etc etc), but that is not surprising, as every film goes through this.
All I can say is that this was the shortest near-3 hour film I’ve ever seen. We saw it at a sold-out showing at El Capitan in Hollywood Saturday night last weekend (opening weekend). I remember looking at my watch at one point and being shocked that we were already 2 hours into the film.
I don’t find the movie overly complex in the least, although that was certainly one of my concerns going into the film. Not because I prefer mindless films, but the movie can easily become overwhelmed by it. Much of my concern in complexity comes with the fact that PotC3 continues to introduce new characters, and so I wondered if there was any way all these guys could get proper screen time while telling a coherent story.
In many ways, I think the Pirates trilogy mirrors the Matrix trilogy. The first movie was a great stand-alone film. The sequels made you think, but the Matrix sequels became so bogged down that I’ll probably never see 2 & 3 again.
Pirates, on the other hand, overcomes the problems the Matrix sequels suffered from by presenting an intelligent set of films while still keeping the story and action moving along at a great pace. This movie really did succeed at doing everything it needed to do.
I do think PotC3 needs a second viewing, because it is a film where you can miss a line here or there, to make sure you catch everything. And while I’m not really concerned about what deleted scenes may or may not have done or said, I am curious to know if there’s anything to explain the mark that Jack Sparrow left on Beckett (remember that they briefly show the ‘P’ on Sparrow again).
One comment I find amusing is that people have said the post-credits scene leaves the possibility of another sequel. Err… the ending of the movie proper left the possibility of a sequel.
I’ve also seen the complaint that people didn’t like the ending to this one simply because it wasn’t a ‘Disney ending’. Of course, that was specifically my main complaint with the first one: the Disney ending. 🙂
re: the cut scenes
For oonce, I’m actually glad that TPTB cut some scenes. I think having it be a one time tour of duty cuts both part of the cost of the ending out, and eliminates part of the ‘timelessness’ of the story.
I *like* the idea of Will sailing the oceans forever, not because I dislike the character, but becasue I do like him. Same thing about (Quantum Leap spoilers) Sam Beckett being doomed to never come home. It makes it seem like the story is never fully ending.
Plus, Will coming home would be a bit *too* much of a Disney ending. All is well, happy, happy.
What the ending suggest to me is :
A-A sequel is possible with Jack starring in it
B-Elizabeth and Will story seems to end here.
My main complaint is the movie (to me) did not resemble the 1st two. The previous films were funny and while there was violence it was easy to see it was “make-believe”. Fighting skeletons and fishmen is easy to laugh at. Shooting women point blank in the head, driving stakes thru someone’s mouth thru thier skull, death by a splinter as big as your leg, and scences of brutally wounded after cannon fire was not easy to laugh at.
Jack was crazy and obessed with hats and Elizabeth in the first two movies. He was sadly insane in the third.
There was a love triangle between 3 friends, it turned into who could use which to further thier own agenda in the third.
And I really didn’t care about Davey Jones broken heart. He was not a sympathic character. The story was about Jack, Elizabeth and Will (or so I thought.
I’m sure someone can point out brutal violence in the 1st two that I don’t remember, but that’s kinda the point. I left those not remembering they had dark moments. Dark is all I think about from the third. When I go see the new Die Hard movie I know it will be gritty, will be disappointed if it is not. I just did not expect it from POC3.
I was very pleased with it.
It vastly entertained me that the screenwriters combined a well-documented period of really relatively recent history with fairly common mariners’ folklore to build a mythology that was vast and sprawling, like a sort of satirical echoe of TOlkien’s LOTR’s mythological cosmology.
Marc: Horribly OT, but is anyone else unable to adjust the size of the comments screen? It pops up in my Firefox window at some absurdly thin size.
That’s why I always right-click on the Comments link and Open in New Tab. Then comments come up full screen, instead of that pesky little window.
Marc: Horribly OT, but is anyone else unable to adjust the size of the comments screen? It pops up in my Firefox window at some absurdly thin size.
That’s why I right-click on the Comments link and Open in New Tab. Avoids that whole pesky tiny window issue.
So….
What happened after the credits?
clay: What happened after the credits?
The caption reads “Ten Years Later”. Elizabeth and a small boy (I thought girl, but guess I was wrong) walk out onto a low cliff overlooknig the sea. The sun sets and there is a flash of green. Captain Will is sailing in to join his love and meet his son.