So much love for pirate boots!
I saw PoTC yesterday afternoon, and then set forth, trying not to sing 'Yo Ho, Yo Ho' too loudly, to see the sequel.
There were some parts where I was shuddering with laughter, many parts where I jumped and gasped and was pretty thrilled. It wasn't the knock-out of the first Pirates - but it was never going to be - and there were moments where things stretched and others where the exposition didn't balance out and there was too much or what was clear, and too little of what wasn't. But I really won't mind going to see it again to try to figure out Davy Jones and the rest of it.
I was glad I'd insisted on watching the first film just before, because there were so many in-jokes and so much continuity - down to the whores of Tortuga were played by the same actresses. Jack very nearly did his patter to confuse one too many times and they should have cut our a couple of the rum references BUT then you had things like Norrington kicking dust up to win a fight, so many characters came back in style, Will and Elizabeth's 'Captain' when hearing of Jack's charges. It was pretty tight and enjoyable in that sense, and I loved it, because the trilogy feels like a proper trilogy of a fully realised wold, and it felt like they spent their money wisely and lovingly, in that sense. It also means, that I think we'll have to wait for the final part to fully judge Pirates, I think. Wonder what it'll be called Pirates of the Caribbean: To the end of the world? Of course, Jack cna't die. It would be unthinkable. But to my mind he's mostly dead, so that's entirely fixable. I'm still in a state of shock at having the universe expanded, and glee and delight at not being let down by a franchise. Ahem.
My very favourite parts may well have been the sword-fights. actually, many of the action scenes strongly reminded me of cartoons - if Jack is Bugs Bunny mixed with Pepe le Pew, these scenes were Tex Avery and chuck Jones homages. And the three-way sword fight between Jack, Will and Norrington and the cutting and the motives and the quips...loved them breathlessly. Close second would be love of the dialogue, the love of words and the playing aof them was evident and it was a thing of joy. I want to watch the film again to learn these new quotes off by heart, to jon '...ecumenically, grammatically'. Oh, yessss.
Character-wise, it is , of course Sparrow's film, because he is the largest of life of them all, and I don't know what he was blithering about his OTP = the sea, because it is obviously The Perl. (One of my many gasps was reserved for his rowing away from it). He behaved very badly, but amusingly, for most of the film and I loved every second of him. And now, I have to get to talking about 'ships, Jack falls into the Captaiins who love their ships first and foremost, and I've always been Will/Elizabeth OTP, and I'm...kind of happy with how this turned out. I mean, in some respects, the film did exactly what I thought it would and in many others it didn/'t, but I mostly like the differences. I can see that Elizabeth is all too alike to Jack, only reared differently and I don't think she has anything like the moral high ground she claims. I knew that she was going to kiss Jack - and I was so relieved for the reason for it, though the attraction up till then (stirrer! James) was disquieting. Especially with Will turning up the noble pirate to 11. But it's good that Elizabeth and Will get to know each other properly (though I still think they shouldn't have waited months to get married. Nice heat in the opening scenes that carried over. throughout the film, by the way. And now Will is all angsteh and Elizabeth has to face some truths about herself and her ruthlessness. Which I get and don't mind, in fact, I found her strength admirable. Though the film could do with one or two more women (coughAnaMaria). (But I loved Naomie Harrss's character.) Especially because of the women are a bit like the sea and turned Davy Jones into an evil soul-harvessting taskmaster squid-face monster. And people who are willing to sit on chests.
Oh Will. So lickable. So very noble and pretty and noble. I maintain that Bloom is a great physical actor - the heroic poses on the rigging and all the stunts will do nothing to stop the Erroll Flynn comparisons, and he is so pretty and heroic-looking, and with him, the incomprable Jack and ...well, this film does well with the eye-candy. (And KK fits into the Be Feistier Than Orlando's Character and his Prettiness will not outshine me mode to be the canonical love interest IMO). But meanwhile, Jack Davenport as Dishevelled!Norrington - sans wid, that's vital - was The SEX. Seriously, have never seen him so hot.
Having said that, what happened to Norrington was one of the most regrettable things for me about the film. I was a little angry with the core three (plus Gov. Swann and his over-riding need to protect Elizabeth) while loving them all to bits for breaking Norrrington. I wish we'd had the speech about following the Pearly through the hurricane earlier that showed how he'd got to where he had, although you could work it out, and I suppose they wanted the entrance. But they (especially Elizabeth) broke him, the pirates made him leave his life of honour and the man I'd grown to love in the first film (see also my feelings re: Scott Summers)... The trade-off being that he got to be around much more, and be deeply sarcastic and bitter when not swashbuckling and puking. (It was like Steve Coupling had returned and was hanging out with mainly Jeffs and Janes!! :)). In short, they made him a pirate, though I'm not sure whether he believed in Davy Jones's heart or just that the Evil Alliance- er the Empire's trading company believed in it. Oh, James, you outsmarted the other pirates for that. Oh, James.(Will now stop moneypennying).
Davy Jones- oh the Flying Dutchman was dark and scary, and it needed to be, obviously. I hugged myself every time anyyone screamed "Kraken". And Bill Nighy was really solid and the creature effects were the right kind of creepy. And oh BILL! And Will! And pirates - LOVED Gibbs' loyalty, loved Will putting his father's knife in his teeth to clamber, loved all the clambering, loved the returnees, loved that Elizabeth got to have her two-sworded fight and was dashing and reckless and crafty. Loved pretty, brave, 100% acion Will (he's unsinkable!). Giggled and gave my heart all over to Jack, even though I flinched whenever anyone trusted him at the wrong time. The film mostly got the mix of scary-funny, believable human motivation-supernatural shennanigans right. It was smart, but it was a rollicking story. I have the theme in my head, and I could smell the salt in the air.
I did stay for the final bit at the end of the hour's worth of credits (there was a Hair P.A.) and it's not worth catching in the cinema. However, I already predict that the parrot will feature in the very last scene of the trilogy, and maybe Cotton will actually speak.
With some caveats, which are mainly that it'll never be quite like the first time, this totally shivered my timbers.
There were some parts where I was shuddering with laughter, many parts where I jumped and gasped and was pretty thrilled. It wasn't the knock-out of the first Pirates - but it was never going to be - and there were moments where things stretched and others where the exposition didn't balance out and there was too much or what was clear, and too little of what wasn't. But I really won't mind going to see it again to try to figure out Davy Jones and the rest of it.
I was glad I'd insisted on watching the first film just before, because there were so many in-jokes and so much continuity - down to the whores of Tortuga were played by the same actresses. Jack very nearly did his patter to confuse one too many times and they should have cut our a couple of the rum references BUT then you had things like Norrington kicking dust up to win a fight, so many characters came back in style, Will and Elizabeth's 'Captain' when hearing of Jack's charges. It was pretty tight and enjoyable in that sense, and I loved it, because the trilogy feels like a proper trilogy of a fully realised wold, and it felt like they spent their money wisely and lovingly, in that sense. It also means, that I think we'll have to wait for the final part to fully judge Pirates, I think. Wonder what it'll be called Pirates of the Caribbean: To the end of the world? Of course, Jack cna't die. It would be unthinkable. But to my mind he's mostly dead, so that's entirely fixable. I'm still in a state of shock at having the universe expanded, and glee and delight at not being let down by a franchise. Ahem.
My very favourite parts may well have been the sword-fights. actually, many of the action scenes strongly reminded me of cartoons - if Jack is Bugs Bunny mixed with Pepe le Pew, these scenes were Tex Avery and chuck Jones homages. And the three-way sword fight between Jack, Will and Norrington and the cutting and the motives and the quips...loved them breathlessly. Close second would be love of the dialogue, the love of words and the playing aof them was evident and it was a thing of joy. I want to watch the film again to learn these new quotes off by heart, to jon '...ecumenically, grammatically'. Oh, yessss.
Character-wise, it is , of course Sparrow's film, because he is the largest of life of them all, and I don't know what he was blithering about his OTP = the sea, because it is obviously The Perl. (One of my many gasps was reserved for his rowing away from it). He behaved very badly, but amusingly, for most of the film and I loved every second of him. And now, I have to get to talking about 'ships, Jack falls into the Captaiins who love their ships first and foremost, and I've always been Will/Elizabeth OTP, and I'm...kind of happy with how this turned out. I mean, in some respects, the film did exactly what I thought it would and in many others it didn/'t, but I mostly like the differences. I can see that Elizabeth is all too alike to Jack, only reared differently and I don't think she has anything like the moral high ground she claims. I knew that she was going to kiss Jack - and I was so relieved for the reason for it, though the attraction up till then (stirrer! James) was disquieting. Especially with Will turning up the noble pirate to 11. But it's good that Elizabeth and Will get to know each other properly (though I still think they shouldn't have waited months to get married. Nice heat in the opening scenes that carried over. throughout the film, by the way. And now Will is all angsteh and Elizabeth has to face some truths about herself and her ruthlessness. Which I get and don't mind, in fact, I found her strength admirable. Though the film could do with one or two more women (coughAnaMaria). (But I loved Naomie Harrss's character.) Especially because of the women are a bit like the sea and turned Davy Jones into an evil soul-harvessting taskmaster squid-face monster. And people who are willing to sit on chests.
Oh Will. So lickable. So very noble and pretty and noble. I maintain that Bloom is a great physical actor - the heroic poses on the rigging and all the stunts will do nothing to stop the Erroll Flynn comparisons, and he is so pretty and heroic-looking, and with him, the incomprable Jack and ...well, this film does well with the eye-candy. (And KK fits into the Be Feistier Than Orlando's Character and his Prettiness will not outshine me mode to be the canonical love interest IMO). But meanwhile, Jack Davenport as Dishevelled!Norrington - sans wid, that's vital - was The SEX. Seriously, have never seen him so hot.
Having said that, what happened to Norrington was one of the most regrettable things for me about the film. I was a little angry with the core three (plus Gov. Swann and his over-riding need to protect Elizabeth) while loving them all to bits for breaking Norrrington. I wish we'd had the speech about following the Pearly through the hurricane earlier that showed how he'd got to where he had, although you could work it out, and I suppose they wanted the entrance. But they (especially Elizabeth) broke him, the pirates made him leave his life of honour and the man I'd grown to love in the first film (see also my feelings re: Scott Summers)... The trade-off being that he got to be around much more, and be deeply sarcastic and bitter when not swashbuckling and puking. (It was like Steve Coupling had returned and was hanging out with mainly Jeffs and Janes!! :)). In short, they made him a pirate, though I'm not sure whether he believed in Davy Jones's heart or just that the Evil Alliance- er the Empire's trading company believed in it. Oh, James, you outsmarted the other pirates for that. Oh, James.(Will now stop moneypennying).
Davy Jones- oh the Flying Dutchman was dark and scary, and it needed to be, obviously. I hugged myself every time anyyone screamed "Kraken". And Bill Nighy was really solid and the creature effects were the right kind of creepy. And oh BILL! And Will! And pirates - LOVED Gibbs' loyalty, loved Will putting his father's knife in his teeth to clamber, loved all the clambering, loved the returnees, loved that Elizabeth got to have her two-sworded fight and was dashing and reckless and crafty. Loved pretty, brave, 100% acion Will (he's unsinkable!). Giggled and gave my heart all over to Jack, even though I flinched whenever anyone trusted him at the wrong time. The film mostly got the mix of scary-funny, believable human motivation-supernatural shennanigans right. It was smart, but it was a rollicking story. I have the theme in my head, and I could smell the salt in the air.
I did stay for the final bit at the end of the hour's worth of credits (there was a Hair P.A.) and it's not worth catching in the cinema. However, I already predict that the parrot will feature in the very last scene of the trilogy, and maybe Cotton will actually speak.
With some caveats, which are mainly that it'll never be quite like the first time, this totally shivered my timbers.