Random Thoughts
*Oceans of Time -- Some of the best sounds in the world are Darien Windsor-Kildarien Shadowbane and Everett Hughes-Aethaeryn ap Ailil laughing happily. The worst sounds, at least that I've heard so far, are Darien... annoyed... at me and Aeryn heartbroken.
*The Harlequin -- I haven't read the book. I don't have any intention of reading the book. I have read some reviews, and that's made me realize something. It might or might not be new, but one way or the other I'm putting it in print. I didn't give up on the series because of the excuse for bad porn known as the arduer. I read Narcissus in Chains, Cerulean Sins, and Incubus Dreams. All of them were full of the bad porn. I still like LKH's Merry Gentry series, though it sounds like that may end with A Lick of Frost in the fall. I gave up on the series because I gave up any hope of LKH's ever treating Richard Zeeman well again. I don't know if he's a surrogate for her ex-husband Gary Hamilton, but I know that she hasn't treated Richard right since her divorce. I can't watch how she's treating him. I love Richard too much to be able to do that.
*Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End -- There are two different openings I considered for my thoughts on having finally actually seen the movie...
1) It's dead Jim. My suspension of disbelief that is.
and
2) How do you break the curse on Will Turner? With sea turtles!
The bottom line is that while I love Curse of the Black Pearl and my suspension of disbelief survived Dead Man's Chest my suspension of disbelief died a quick and painful death watching At World's End. It's a mess, and Will is far from the only character in the film I feel insulted on behalf of. I mean the dog survived cannibal island, but Governor Swann didn't get to die on camera, and Norrington got killed not by Davy or Beckett but a deranged Boot Strap Bill? *Shakes head.* And don't even get me started on the whole Tia Dalma/Calypso business to say nothing of the curses plural and how they do or don't overlap. The whole Jack in the locker sequence and the times when his hallucinations turned up later outside of the locker made me think, "I may have lost all respect for George Lucas a while ago, but at least he didn't subject people to 'This is Han Solo in carbonite. This is Han Solo's brain in carbonite.' Sure it took a bit for Han's eyesight to come back but that was all." Heck, I'm not even sure how much point there was to Beckett. It seems like he was more sequel-itis throw in yet another villain bloat than a meaningful part of the cast. Sure he facilitated the writers killing off Norrington and getting the pirate lords all together so Barbossa could get all the pieces of eight, but was he really necessary for those things?
Don't get me wrong there was stuff that amused me, even in the Jack in the locker sequence. In that I liked how some of the Jacks were topless, shallow sure, but true. My favorite bit of the film was Will's and Elizabeth's mid-battle wedding. I really liked that. I liked the Tia Dalma/Calypso and Davy Jones scene when she was down in the brig, even if it wasn't all it might have been. I find it sad when a movie makes me agree with Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman at all, but I did find myself sharing his wish "the film had played up his [Davy Jones] poison-love backstory," and it wasn't just because hopefully it would've made the curses plural clearer. It was cool to see Davy sans the squid-y look. I didn't like how Norrington got killed, but since I'd been expecting them to kill him off since before the film was ever released I was glad they at least let him give Elizabeth a kiss. I definitely think the only person that got screwed worse than him was Will Turner. Er, sorry, this is suppose to be the "Good Stuff" paragraph. Speaking of Will Turner, I enjoyed hearing him called "Captain Will Turner." I'm positive he had some lines I loved, even if I can't remember them right now. I particularly liked the bit about a cause not being lost as long as there's a fool to fight for it, especially with how they cursed Will. Er, good stuff paragraph, good stuff paragraph.
Mostly though I'd really really really like to see a Director's Cut/Extended Release version of the film that includes the footage that was cut from the first cut of the film. The FAQ at the IMDb says, "The first assembly cut of At World's End was three hours. Twenty minutes were removed, not including end credits, though producer Jerry Bruckheimer maintained that the long running time was needed to make the final battle work in terms of build-up. One scene cut explained that if Calypso had greeted Davy Jones after his ten years of ferrying dead souls, then he would have been freed of his duty: in turn, Will is freed of his captaincy as Elizabeth remains faithful to him ten years later." If it's true then not only did the writers mean for Will to be freed of the curse, not only did Gore Verbinski mean for Will to be freed of the curse, but even Jerry Bruckheimer meant for him to be freed of the curse. It was some fucking suit at Disney that damned Will with his Beckett-esque business sense. *Shakes head.*
*The Harlequin -- I haven't read the book. I don't have any intention of reading the book. I have read some reviews, and that's made me realize something. It might or might not be new, but one way or the other I'm putting it in print. I didn't give up on the series because of the excuse for bad porn known as the arduer. I read Narcissus in Chains, Cerulean Sins, and Incubus Dreams. All of them were full of the bad porn. I still like LKH's Merry Gentry series, though it sounds like that may end with A Lick of Frost in the fall. I gave up on the series because I gave up any hope of LKH's ever treating Richard Zeeman well again. I don't know if he's a surrogate for her ex-husband Gary Hamilton, but I know that she hasn't treated Richard right since her divorce. I can't watch how she's treating him. I love Richard too much to be able to do that.
*Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End -- There are two different openings I considered for my thoughts on having finally actually seen the movie...
1) It's dead Jim. My suspension of disbelief that is.
and
2) How do you break the curse on Will Turner? With sea turtles!
The bottom line is that while I love Curse of the Black Pearl and my suspension of disbelief survived Dead Man's Chest my suspension of disbelief died a quick and painful death watching At World's End. It's a mess, and Will is far from the only character in the film I feel insulted on behalf of. I mean the dog survived cannibal island, but Governor Swann didn't get to die on camera, and Norrington got killed not by Davy or Beckett but a deranged Boot Strap Bill? *Shakes head.* And don't even get me started on the whole Tia Dalma/Calypso business to say nothing of the curses plural and how they do or don't overlap. The whole Jack in the locker sequence and the times when his hallucinations turned up later outside of the locker made me think, "I may have lost all respect for George Lucas a while ago, but at least he didn't subject people to 'This is Han Solo in carbonite. This is Han Solo's brain in carbonite.' Sure it took a bit for Han's eyesight to come back but that was all." Heck, I'm not even sure how much point there was to Beckett. It seems like he was more sequel-itis throw in yet another villain bloat than a meaningful part of the cast. Sure he facilitated the writers killing off Norrington and getting the pirate lords all together so Barbossa could get all the pieces of eight, but was he really necessary for those things?
Don't get me wrong there was stuff that amused me, even in the Jack in the locker sequence. In that I liked how some of the Jacks were topless, shallow sure, but true. My favorite bit of the film was Will's and Elizabeth's mid-battle wedding. I really liked that. I liked the Tia Dalma/Calypso and Davy Jones scene when she was down in the brig, even if it wasn't all it might have been. I find it sad when a movie makes me agree with Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman at all, but I did find myself sharing his wish "the film had played up his [Davy Jones] poison-love backstory," and it wasn't just because hopefully it would've made the curses plural clearer. It was cool to see Davy sans the squid-y look. I didn't like how Norrington got killed, but since I'd been expecting them to kill him off since before the film was ever released I was glad they at least let him give Elizabeth a kiss. I definitely think the only person that got screwed worse than him was Will Turner. Er, sorry, this is suppose to be the "Good Stuff" paragraph. Speaking of Will Turner, I enjoyed hearing him called "Captain Will Turner." I'm positive he had some lines I loved, even if I can't remember them right now. I particularly liked the bit about a cause not being lost as long as there's a fool to fight for it, especially with how they cursed Will. Er, good stuff paragraph, good stuff paragraph.
Mostly though I'd really really really like to see a Director's Cut/Extended Release version of the film that includes the footage that was cut from the first cut of the film. The FAQ at the IMDb says, "The first assembly cut of At World's End was three hours. Twenty minutes were removed, not including end credits, though producer Jerry Bruckheimer maintained that the long running time was needed to make the final battle work in terms of build-up. One scene cut explained that if Calypso had greeted Davy Jones after his ten years of ferrying dead souls, then he would have been freed of his duty: in turn, Will is freed of his captaincy as Elizabeth remains faithful to him ten years later." If it's true then not only did the writers mean for Will to be freed of the curse, not only did Gore Verbinski mean for Will to be freed of the curse, but even Jerry Bruckheimer meant for him to be freed of the curse. It was some fucking suit at Disney that damned Will with his Beckett-esque business sense. *Shakes head.*