Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

World-Building: Great

Characterization: Awesome

Plot: Great

While the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, "Curse of the Black Pearl", stands alone the second and third parts are really one big story. They do each have their own mini-plots, but when you look at them together you can see the same threads running through both and it is only in “At World’s End” that we get a conclusion to the Davy Jones story.  Some reviewers have complained that the plot is too confusing, but I personally love it. Each character has their own motivations and they are all quite prepared to betray each other to achieve their goals, which makes it much less predictable.

The magic/fantasy elements were much more apparent in this movie with Calypso and Davy Jones at the heart of the plotline. Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones’ locker was highly amusing, but I felt that they were pushing the insanity of his character to the limit and if they had gone a tiny bit further they would have gone over the edge to the realm of the silly. It did make sense that he became even crazier after his punishment in the locker, but with him being so crazy to begin with it was a difficult line to tow. Anyone other than Depp would have killed it, but he pulled it off.

Another big difference is that Elizabeth and Will Turner both become pirates in their own right. In the conflict between the East India Company (headed by Beckett) and the pirates (headed by the nine Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court) Elizabeth stands firmly on the side of the pirates. Will’s loyalties are to his father and the promise that he made in the second movie to free him from servitude to Davy Jones. This leads to his very pirate-like actions throughout the movie where he willingly betrays almost everyone around him.

The only thing I really disliked about this movie was Calypso’s change. Whatever it was she shouted at Barbossa after his plea was completely incomprehensible and that was annoying. Instead of being frightening – which is what they seemed to be going for – it was silly and I wanted it to end quickly so I could see the rest of the movie.

This was the first time I re-watched this movie after watching the disaster that was Pirates 4 and so I noticed many things that could have been used to make the fourth movie awesome, but weren’t. For example, the sidekick navy man who used to be under Norrington and then became Beckett’s second could have been a good character to develop, especially with his admiration for Jack Sparrow.

Overall, I would recommend this movie to anyone who has seen the first two POTC movies. It is enjoyable, it’s in the same well-built world, and it ties up all the loose ends left by the second installment. They really should have ended it here. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

World-Building: Great
Characterization: Awesome
Plot: Great

This is the second installment of Pirates of the Caribbean and while there are some new things that were very annoying - like the whole cannibal episode - there were also some improvements over the last one. The most noticeable improvement is in the characters of Will and Elizabeth. I mentioned in my last review that their story was what anchored the whole thing, but this time it shows even more. These characters are more interesting and more driven now that they've had some pirating experience and are on the run from the East India Company. I think there's also a slight, but noticeable, improvement in Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley's acting.

Jack is the same old Jack played brilliantly by Johnny Depp. Like last time he has his own motivations, but this time instead of getting his ship back his motivation is staying alive/escaping Davy Jones. And again, he'll do almost anything to achieve his goal, including risk the lives of those around him.

One of the great improvements was the Davy Jones storyline. It brings this movie more solidly into the genre and shows us a new version of the undead. Davy Jones and his crew of sea-creature-men is awesome in a creepy kind of way.

Some have complained that the plot becomes convoluted in the second and third PoTC movies, but I never saw why. Just like the first movie this one relies on the story of Will and Elizabeth to keep it grounded while following many different motivations and plotlines. It's realistic. It's also a trend that's becoming very common in the genre. It's now common to pick up a fantasy book with over 6 POVs and in my opinion this is a good thing. The speculative genre shouldn't be restricted to the limited perspective of just one "main" character.

As I mentioned there are some very annoying things like the cannibals and the stupid dog with the keys and the Jack/Elizabeth plotline, but overall it's a great movie in which the characters show some development and do interesting things.

I especially liked the angle they took with Norrington and the East India Company guy, Lord Cutler Beckett. He's a much more frightening villain and I like Norrington's constant sarcasm and pessimism when he's with the pirates.

I would highly recommend this movie just like the first, but be prepared to watch the third movie as well because this one will not give you a satisfying ending.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

World-Building: Awesome
Characterization: Great - Awesome
Plot: Great

I feel like there's a tendency to sneer at these movies or overlook them as something not to be taken seriously. In my opinion, however, Curse of the Black Pearl has many of the makings of a great fantasy story. By far the best thing about this movie, as many have said before me, is the genius insanity of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. The other characters are also great, and one of the great things about this movie is that characters have real logical motivations that drive the plot. The world-building is just there in the background providing the perfect backdrop for the story to take place with the cursed gold, the skeletal crew of the black pearl, the British royal navy going after the pirates and so on.

The movie starts with Elizabeth Swan, the daughter of the governor of port royal. Even as a young child she was fascinated by pirates, something which concerned her father. She sees a young boy floating in the water, and, when she sees a "pirate medallion" hanging on his chest she takes it away to protect him from Norrington (a Navy man obsessed with catching/killing pirates). After this scene we fast-forward a few years  to when Elizabeth and Will Turner - the boy she saved - are grown up and ready to embark on a pirate adventure. It is Elizabeth and Will that provide the main plot arc and the main hook for the audience. Their story anchors the plot so that even when really weird things are happening or we're revisiting the same scene we have their motivations, goals, and fates to worry about. Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom deliver great performances in these roles.

Johnny Depp's performance isn't awesome just for it's nuttiness, it's also clear that he is very motivated to get his ship back - and to get revenge for Barbossa's mutiny. The scene when Elizabeth is getting him drunk on the island so that she can make a signal is great because we get to hear him actually talking seriously about his ship and what it means to him. You could say that Captain Jack Sparrow's character is responsible for the main action and suspense in the movie as well because you never know - and neither do the characters - just what Jack will do to get his ship back. He's the pirate captain, but he's also kind of the hero of the tale, despite his questionable morals. And by the time the ending rolls along and he's in actual danger you don't want him to get killed.

Geoffrey Rush as Jack's mutinous first mate, now Captain, Barbossa is in short awesome. He's another well-rounded character with a very strong motivation. The moment when he reveals the curse to Elizabeth is not only a frightening horror-movie scene, it's also a a moment when the audience is forced to sympathize with him a little bit and feel his pain. 

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. A thoroughly enjoyable adventure!

Why Some Things Should Not Be Injected with Fantasy Elements

... sometimes stories are best left alone, without the injection of random fantastic elements. I mean, theoretically, it might have worked, with a very skilled person approaching it - I've read awesome historical fantasy - but the 2011 rendition of The Three Musketeers just failed. On so many levels.

World-Building: *headdesk* (I'm going to make this an official rating now)
Characterization: nonexistent
Plot: What? We need plot in a movie? Ooops!

Alexander Dumas wrote some pretty awesome books. I've read most of them, but it's been a while, so all I remembered going into this movie were some random vague scenes and the names of the 4 main characters.

It started off with a very bizzare sequence and I was wondering what was happening, until they did the little freeze-frame-character-name thing for Athos and I thought "Oh! They're going a video-game style route, like Prince of Persia!) So then they proceeded to do the same thing for the other two Musketeers and it was ok by this point.

Then suddenly D'Artagnan showed up with an AMERICAN ACCENT! It made me want to *headdesk* every time I heard it. Also, the accents in general made no sense, except maybe Orlando Bloom's, because they were supposed to be French, not British and certainly not American. I'm not going to go on about this, but it was annoying.

I'd love to say something about the plot at this point, but I really can't because it doesn't make sense. Nothing in this movie made sense and the Musketeers did the most random things without the viewer having any sense of what they were about to do and then they had to explain it all later in really lame dialogue. It just didn't work.

The thing I want to talk about the most is the world building. From the moment they turned out to be after some mysterious plan for something invented by Da Vinci I began to roll my eyes. It gets worse when you realize that this invention is a flying ship. Yeah, a full blown ship fitted with a hot air balloon.

The fight scenes were so over the top they were lame and Milady suddenly became a Ninja out of thin air. I was just starting to laugh at her acrobatics with the huge dress (they weren't able to breathe properly in those things and you are trying to convince me that she was preforming physics-defying acrobatics in it!) when she took off the skirt part of it and started to fly around half naked.

At some point in the middle of the airship battle I began to fall asleep. And before you say I can't criticize the movie without having seen it all, don't worry, I forced myself to finish it the next day. It doesn't get any better.

The one thing that could have saved this mess from the lame idea of inserting pointless airships was the wide variety of awesome actors involved - they could have done an awesome job with the characterizations. Unfortunately all of them were completely ridiculous and there wasn't a single character that I cared about. Certinaly not D'Artagnan *shudder*.

This movie got the low ratings and negative reviews it deserved on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, and I had a good laugh reading some of the one-liner reviews about what other boring activities people preferred to do over watching it. However, there was an irritating tendency to compare it to Pirates of the Caribbean. There might be ships and Orlando Bloom, but the resemblance ends there. (Actually, this movie also attempted to rip off the PoTC soundtrack to little effect). While PoTC may not have been the highest form of literature or anything it still had awesome characters and great plotlines (and when I say PoTC I don't count the fourth movie, btw). Also, Pirates was just plain funny, and when some of the reviewers on rotten tomatoes said that the Three Musketeers was trying (and failing) to be funny I was taken by surprise. I had no idea, as I was watching, that any of it was supposed to be in any way funny or amusing.

*sigh*

I should really stop here and maybe go find a copy of the book to read to help erase this terrible experience from my memory.

Sorry about the rant. In good news, I'm currently reading a good book and I have some others (including a couple by Crichton) lined up and waiting to be read. As always, let me know your thoughts/comments.