What ARRRR you doing?
URGA MOTW
Pirates of the Caribbean : At World's End
This review is somewhat different to most of my previous ones - I'm writing this after having seen the film twice, once on Thursday and then again last night with URGA. So a double-viewing may have skewed my opinions a little, but if anything, it's in a more favourable direction!
The third Pirates film had a lot to live up to. The first was pure, unadulterated, swashbuckling fun. The second film took itself a little too seriously and upped things on the epic scale, and apart from a few creative sequences, a lot of the fun of the first movie was missing. How does At World's End measure up? Well... it's taken the fun of the first movie and the epic scale of the second film and pushed both to new heights.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
First, PotC3 is very long... but it is very well paced, so you hardly notice the time flitting by. In both viewings, I was never bored and wishing that the film would "just finish already!" Still, with that warning, be sure to empty your bladder beforehand :) The length can possibly be explained by the fact that there's about eight or so main characters and all of them have different motivations for moving the story along its path, so we need to be sure that all of them get a fair go at it. (The only ones that are kind of underused, understandably, are Norrington (Jack Davenport) and Governor Swann (Jonathon Pryce) who both put in a good performance, but it was obvious they didn't have much of a role to play in the story, so their parts are significantly reduced compared to the previous films.)
Second, the plot is complicated and convoluted, and somewhat of a struggle to follow the first time around. Of course, everything slotted into place on second viewing, and it does make internally consistent sense, even if that sense stretches credulity and creates an entirely new mythos to the world and the characters that was not at all hinted about in the first two films. All that this shows is that the writers are incredbily clever at the retcon, and despite the new mythos, it still doesn't contradict what we've seen before. The other problem with the plot and its hard-to-followness is that everyone double-crosses everyone, and it's very hard to remember who's allying with who at any particular point, because of course, the characters tend to not voice what they're planning to do until the plan is almost complete! This could very well be called "Doublecross: The Movie". Rest assured, even if it's all confusing to you on first viewing, it isn't too hard to follow the second time around, since all the obtuse dialogue makes sense when it's mentioned (and there's quite a bit of it...)
To counter these "bad" points (which aren't that bad), there are several things that make this film brilliant.
The dialogue is fresh and fun all the way through - some of the more 'serious' or 'stirring' speeches can be a little corny, but the writers certainly knew how to chuck a gag in exactly when needed - half of the visual gags happen when there's important expositionary dialogue going on in the background, which of course means you miss the exposition whilst laughing at the antics of the R2D2/C3PO pirates, Jack the Monkey, and other sideline comic relief characters. Of course, the main characters get their fair share of gags too - Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) and, no surprises, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).
The visual effects are AMAZING - that's for certain. Some of the imagery and battle sequences are incredibly superb and well done, and I was gobsmacked many times by the epic scale of the visual landscape - the CGI is near flawless, and practical effects (explosions, stunts etc) don't disappoint either. If this film doesn't win some sort of an award for visual effects, I'd be bloody surprised.
Acting is fairly good throughout - nothing really grated, although some good actors didn't really get a chance to show off their chops - but when you've got such a huge number of characters, that's hardly surprising. Of course, the highlights are Depp, Rush and Nighy, but Keira Knightley puts in a fairly good performance this time around (showing she can be a tough girl if needed). Orlando Bloom's there, but he's not all that interesting and never was.
Some other comments:
The begining is quite morose - suggesting perhaps that this film is not for the tiny kiddies, but teenagers should be able to cope with it no problems. It's probably less scary than the first film, but still, some imagery is disturbing, even to adults, and that's how this film begins.
The ending - an epic battle (with some amazing effects, fighting, stunts and music), the villain of the piece (Lord Beckett) gets his just desserts and things end all happily... or do they? It's certainly a fitting ending, and suitable according to the motivations of the characters, but it is unusual for Hollywood blockbusters to break the formula in this way.
Sequels? Well, it's been set up that more Pirates films are definitely possible, but I think (and confirmed with my friends) that they've done and dusted the epic story now, so any future films should essentially be "The Adventures of Jack Sparrow" and each one be a standalone adventure, lighthearted and fun, very much in the vein of Curse of the Black Pearl. The story of Will and Elizabeth is told, and they have an ending of a sort, and they certainly don't need to be in any sequel. As for other 'favourite' characters such as Gibbs, R2D2 & C3PO[1], and Jack the Monkey, plus possibly Barbosa, I'm sure the writers will find a way to bring them back if they really need to :)
In conclusion - I very much enjoyed Pirates 3, it was a great ending to the trilogy, and if they can keep the fun but tone down the epic, I'd be happy to see more Pirates films in future.
9/10
[1]Does anyone know what the character names actually are? They're the two pirates - one has a wooden eye, the other is balding. Comic relief, pure and simple, but they're always there.
Pirates of the Caribbean : At World's End
This review is somewhat different to most of my previous ones - I'm writing this after having seen the film twice, once on Thursday and then again last night with URGA. So a double-viewing may have skewed my opinions a little, but if anything, it's in a more favourable direction!
The third Pirates film had a lot to live up to. The first was pure, unadulterated, swashbuckling fun. The second film took itself a little too seriously and upped things on the epic scale, and apart from a few creative sequences, a lot of the fun of the first movie was missing. How does At World's End measure up? Well... it's taken the fun of the first movie and the epic scale of the second film and pushed both to new heights.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
First, PotC3 is very long... but it is very well paced, so you hardly notice the time flitting by. In both viewings, I was never bored and wishing that the film would "just finish already!" Still, with that warning, be sure to empty your bladder beforehand :) The length can possibly be explained by the fact that there's about eight or so main characters and all of them have different motivations for moving the story along its path, so we need to be sure that all of them get a fair go at it. (The only ones that are kind of underused, understandably, are Norrington (Jack Davenport) and Governor Swann (Jonathon Pryce) who both put in a good performance, but it was obvious they didn't have much of a role to play in the story, so their parts are significantly reduced compared to the previous films.)
Second, the plot is complicated and convoluted, and somewhat of a struggle to follow the first time around. Of course, everything slotted into place on second viewing, and it does make internally consistent sense, even if that sense stretches credulity and creates an entirely new mythos to the world and the characters that was not at all hinted about in the first two films. All that this shows is that the writers are incredbily clever at the retcon, and despite the new mythos, it still doesn't contradict what we've seen before. The other problem with the plot and its hard-to-followness is that everyone double-crosses everyone, and it's very hard to remember who's allying with who at any particular point, because of course, the characters tend to not voice what they're planning to do until the plan is almost complete! This could very well be called "Doublecross: The Movie". Rest assured, even if it's all confusing to you on first viewing, it isn't too hard to follow the second time around, since all the obtuse dialogue makes sense when it's mentioned (and there's quite a bit of it...)
To counter these "bad" points (which aren't that bad), there are several things that make this film brilliant.
The dialogue is fresh and fun all the way through - some of the more 'serious' or 'stirring' speeches can be a little corny, but the writers certainly knew how to chuck a gag in exactly when needed - half of the visual gags happen when there's important expositionary dialogue going on in the background, which of course means you miss the exposition whilst laughing at the antics of the R2D2/C3PO pirates, Jack the Monkey, and other sideline comic relief characters. Of course, the main characters get their fair share of gags too - Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) and, no surprises, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).
The visual effects are AMAZING - that's for certain. Some of the imagery and battle sequences are incredibly superb and well done, and I was gobsmacked many times by the epic scale of the visual landscape - the CGI is near flawless, and practical effects (explosions, stunts etc) don't disappoint either. If this film doesn't win some sort of an award for visual effects, I'd be bloody surprised.
Acting is fairly good throughout - nothing really grated, although some good actors didn't really get a chance to show off their chops - but when you've got such a huge number of characters, that's hardly surprising. Of course, the highlights are Depp, Rush and Nighy, but Keira Knightley puts in a fairly good performance this time around (showing she can be a tough girl if needed). Orlando Bloom's there, but he's not all that interesting and never was.
Some other comments:
The begining is quite morose - suggesting perhaps that this film is not for the tiny kiddies, but teenagers should be able to cope with it no problems. It's probably less scary than the first film, but still, some imagery is disturbing, even to adults, and that's how this film begins.
The ending - an epic battle (with some amazing effects, fighting, stunts and music), the villain of the piece (Lord Beckett) gets his just desserts and things end all happily... or do they? It's certainly a fitting ending, and suitable according to the motivations of the characters, but it is unusual for Hollywood blockbusters to break the formula in this way.
Sequels? Well, it's been set up that more Pirates films are definitely possible, but I think (and confirmed with my friends) that they've done and dusted the epic story now, so any future films should essentially be "The Adventures of Jack Sparrow" and each one be a standalone adventure, lighthearted and fun, very much in the vein of Curse of the Black Pearl. The story of Will and Elizabeth is told, and they have an ending of a sort, and they certainly don't need to be in any sequel. As for other 'favourite' characters such as Gibbs, R2D2 & C3PO[1], and Jack the Monkey, plus possibly Barbosa, I'm sure the writers will find a way to bring them back if they really need to :)
In conclusion - I very much enjoyed Pirates 3, it was a great ending to the trilogy, and if they can keep the fun but tone down the epic, I'd be happy to see more Pirates films in future.
9/10
[1]Does anyone know what the character names actually are? They're the two pirates - one has a wooden eye, the other is balding. Comic relief, pure and simple, but they're always there.