Dead Man's Chest
Took in the overly-long Pirates of the Caribbean 2. No plot, little acting, Orlando Bloom and the heroine were wooden and dull, and Johnny Depp must have some debts or just had his soul sucked out by connection to the Great Disney Cultural Obviation Machine. He appeared to really enjoy playing the fey, drunken, immoral Cap'n Sparrow in POTC 1, and played him pretty broadly. This time, the pirate captain gets redeemed, and we are assured even though he flaps around like Charles Nelson Reilly on a hot plate, he likes girls, not boys. He has beautiful eyes, I will mention, but if he's not having fun, I'm not having fun, ergo...
Thank goodness for the special effects! This movie was a CGI extravaganza; truly fine. Anything that might be considered a creature or a monster here was done well to superbly. At certain points, I stopped thinking of Bill Nighy as wearing a octopus mask, and given how the tentacles moved restlessly as he talked or moved, began to think of old scrotum nape as really being Davy Jones, dreaded terror of the deep. Actual cephalopod tentacles are semi-autonomous, and much less centrally controlled by the neural lump in the head than mammal limbs are, so their random feeling around was neat, really gave you the sense that he was part octopus.
His crew were less carefully done, but quite creepy and wonderful = a hammerhead shark, a crab, an urchin, etc. Fantastical and nightmarish, one and all. I hope no one is taking 6 year olds to this, because this could cause screaming kid nightmares for weeks. I was scared when the Kracken attacked, and what could be stupider or more cliqued than a giant cephalopod engulfing a sailing ship? Yet, it was pretty believable as some points, kinda scary, because each tentacle, once again, feels like an independent operator.
So, on the whole, don't see this unless you are a fan of special effects monsters. Ray Harryhausen would be so proud!
One last bitchy note: why didn't he just cut his hand off to rid himself of the Kracken-bait? He's a pirate!?! Get a hook! Just had to say that?
Thank goodness for the special effects! This movie was a CGI extravaganza; truly fine. Anything that might be considered a creature or a monster here was done well to superbly. At certain points, I stopped thinking of Bill Nighy as wearing a octopus mask, and given how the tentacles moved restlessly as he talked or moved, began to think of old scrotum nape as really being Davy Jones, dreaded terror of the deep. Actual cephalopod tentacles are semi-autonomous, and much less centrally controlled by the neural lump in the head than mammal limbs are, so their random feeling around was neat, really gave you the sense that he was part octopus.
His crew were less carefully done, but quite creepy and wonderful = a hammerhead shark, a crab, an urchin, etc. Fantastical and nightmarish, one and all. I hope no one is taking 6 year olds to this, because this could cause screaming kid nightmares for weeks. I was scared when the Kracken attacked, and what could be stupider or more cliqued than a giant cephalopod engulfing a sailing ship? Yet, it was pretty believable as some points, kinda scary, because each tentacle, once again, feels like an independent operator.
So, on the whole, don't see this unless you are a fan of special effects monsters. Ray Harryhausen would be so proud!
One last bitchy note: why didn't he just cut his hand off to rid himself of the Kracken-bait? He's a pirate!?! Get a hook! Just had to say that?