Pirates of the Caribbean 3

[fabrisse]

I liked it.


I wanted to put that at the very top because I'm dealing with the flaws first.

The pacing of the film was off. I wish I could be more specific than that, but certain scenes that weren't important seemed interminable and others that were seemed to end to soon almost before we got to their meat and marrow.

The worst things for me were the endings. There were too many, and, while they ended with the one that was best for the franchise, I'm not at all certain chose the ending that was best for the movie. I firmly believe that Will walking to his ship would have been the best ending to the movie I saw. The Barbossa ending was the least necessary; the Jack ending, as I mentioned, was great for the franchise and good for the character. It wasn't the emotional heart of the movie though, and that disappointed me.

Now here's what's good.

The second film was too light for me. I felt that, in many ways, they had to take huge liberties with the characters we knew -- particularly Jack -- to get the plot they wanted. (See here for my take on Jack's innate honesty.)

In this film, Jack was still honest -- a pirate of course, but honest.

It was good that there were consequences from the actions of the second movie in this one. Will's promise to his father, Elizabeth's destruction of Jack, even Calypso's decision to bring Barbossa back all had their seeds planted in the second movie.

Will's and Elizabeth's story, which was at the core of the first movie, was also in high relief here. "It was not your burden to bear" haunted me.

There were so many different loves. Love for the sea whether an embodiment or the thing itself was a huge theme -- Jack, Jack's father, Davy Jones, Barbossa -- even Ragetti whispering in Calypso's ear -- all have different aspects of it. And the implication that the East India Company couldn't have been a dominant force if the Brethren's Council hadn't sown the seeds of its own destruction by imprisoning Calypso was fascinating.

Mastery should be gained through developing skills, not taken by force.

Elizabeth and her father's loves for each other were stunning.

The implication that from the point of view of the Pirates in the Disney ride, we're visible as dead souls is an interesting bit of commentary on how Disney sees its punters.

There was one overarching theme that struck me. Disney, one of the largest multi-national conglomerates in the world, attacked the big business ethos as represented by the East India Company and did it in the name of the freedoms of the Bill of Rights.

The horrible pun of the rights "suspended" as the bodies were suspended from the gibbet underscored exactly what giving up our rights ("Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." -- Benjamin Franklin) does to us as a society. The brethren's council may have been anarchic, but, as the scene with electing the Pirate King shows, it was under a rule of law.

WooHoo! Let's hope this seeps into the dreams of every child who sees the movie.


What did y'all think?

Comments

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything. *gg*

Oh, I should probably add more, huh? :-p

While I loved the film, there were things I thought should have been handled better or filmed differently. I so agree about the ending. It should have ended on Will and the Dutchman, but as you say, the franchise is about Jack, so that's what we got--only that ending wasn't playful or sexy or mischievous. It was off timing and off character. *sighs* I missed "Jack" in this film. He wasn't there all the time. I didn't see the man I saw in the first film. I saw, instead, Will pretending to be Jack and annoyingly, he did it very well. ;) I thought the exchange between Jack and Will pretty amusing though. Paraphrasing Jack, "I tried to be you," and Will asking, "Really?" and Jack then denying it. I thought that was a moment between them that spoke how well they knew each other(as did Will's portrayal of Jack) and I wish there had been more of that.

With Will, I also kept hearing the echo from the first film, with Elizabeth asking Will, "Whose side is Jack on?" Because seriously, the man had me fooled. *g*

While I can understand Jack being different after coming back from The Locker, what I missed was his playful intensity and periodic oddness. A lot of what I saw was light-hearted foppishness. But then, that's the first impression. I'll have to watch it again. ;)

I liked Elizabeth's severity in this film, but I wished I saw more of the reason for it. The stressed events she goes through were fine but there was nothing exactly examined. Elizabeth's personality seems like it has gaps. Though I appreciate the fact that she can handle a sword(because Will taught her) and she's (somehow) learned sea and ship knowledge, what the hell else can she do other than think on her feet and stab Jack in the back? The second film didn't supply any complexity to her character till she actually killed Jack. Then I suddenly saw some depth in there besides the angsty not-talking with Will. It would have been nice to hear more about the other changes. Her father's death was a good reason for the anger and lack of mercy, but that reason was an addition, not the catalyst. It's not that I didn't buy her changes, it's just that I had to come up with the reasons for them on my own. ;)

I think my favorite scenes out of all of it was Will's death transition into Captain of the Dutchman, from his taking over the ship to the scene with his father, and then his "wedding night" with Elizabeth. The look in his eyes the entire time conveyed a lot of his emotion for me(probably why that scene in the icon is my favorite). I think Will made the film, but then, that's probably an unfair bias, since I liked Will more than Jack. As I said, I'll have to watch it again. ;)

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Ooops, meant to use this icon. It's brighter. *gg*

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Erm, I just rewatched the film. And that comment about Jack copying Will... erm. *cheeky grin* That was the other way around. Blasted brain of mine. Still, when Jack leaned forward, then breathed on Will, I could've sworn that for a second, he was gonna kiss him. *snickers* That would've been horrible if Will had then fallen overboard because of it, so the bad breath thing was better. Although it did give me a little bunny scenario for later, when Jack runs into the Dutchman again some years down the road. ;)

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Must read bunny. Go forth and write!

*G*

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Um, yes ma'am. I'll see if I can actually get my brain on cooperative terms. *g*

[eanja]

I've just seen this this morning, finally, so I can come back and comment.

If you stayed past the credits, it did end w/ Will, really. I realize the main movie had to end w/ Jack, but I like that they wrapped up w/ Will again at the very end, and in a way that was both sad and optimistic.

I agree w/ you on the pacing. Overall, for an almost 3 hour movie, it went by very quickly, but bits dragged. And I felt as if there was too much focus on Elizabeth. I'm all in favor of feisty heroines, but there were definitely scenes where I felt like she was making a speech because someone thought it was time for the pretty girl to be center camera more than anything else, and while I like Knightly generally, you need a lot of gravitas to make an speech to seasoned pirates when your character is maybe 20 years old, and I don't think she quite has it. She seemed shallower here than in the second film, somehow. (Which didn't stop me from lusting over some of her oriental outfits. )

I was quite sad that they killed off Norrington so randomly. How did he go from being a privateer, who's real love was the sea, to being essentially a bureacrat? In the first two films, he came across as someone essentially decent, but for whom the ocean and freedom were most important, to where he was willing to sacrifice the rules when he couldn't have what he wanted by following them. And then suddenly in this film, he was a EIC lapdog who died after a convenient bout of pretty-girl induced guilt.

Good thing Barbossa and Rush had such a slashy way of oggling each other- my fickle little heart was too busy wondering about that pairing to mourn the lack of further Sparrow/Norrington. (And I'm happy that I can imagine the two of them going on to chase each other all over the place.)

And I thought that crazy, hallucinating Sparrow was a bit overdone. It worked in the intial scenes, but was just odd later on, especially as it seemed so random, one minute he was his usual, sly, ahead of the game self, and the next, talking to people no one else could see.

I did like that the sorceress turned out to be Calypso, and that she didn't really give too much of a damn about any of the humans. (Although most of the pirates seems bizarrely nasty to a very powerful person whose help they were soon to need. Did they think she'd just forget everything that happened while she was human, or what?)

And I do like that Pintell and Ragetti haven't changed, and are apparently still a couple. And I liked the pieces of eight stuff.

I was slightly appalled by the number of random, unnamed people who died in the background w/out any comment. But given some of the things I know the East India Company got up to, I have no problem painting them as worse than the pirates.

Hmm- interesting that this 'controlling authority is bad' film is coming out not too long before the fifth Harry Potter, which also has a very heavy don't trust the authorities message. Maybe the two together will sink in.

[eanja]

Oh. I also wanted to pass on this link. I know you don't read Harry Potter fic, but this is really purely a Jack Sparrow AU, and somehow seems completely plausible.

http://community.livejournal.com/crossover_hp/66932.html

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Read it, and loved it. *G*