Pirates of the Caribbean, part Deux

[Merlinios]

Finally coughed up the cash and got out of the house. The crowd was better than usual. There was only one crying baby, one kid asking questions (directly behind me), and the largest, tallest people in the theater sat right in front of us.

The movie itself was better than I thought it would be. My one major grievance was there was too much swashbuckling action. The scene with the water-wheel, for example, was about fifteen minutes too long. There was a saving grace even here, though, for the slapstick was well-done, even in mid-fight. But the two-and-a-half hour movie contained only an hour and a half of...movie. A little action is good, I suppose, but (and I think I'm in the minority here) you really don't need it to be a good third of the movie. I'd MUCH rather have plot progression. And if you can't do that, just trim the scenes a little. We don't need to see them three fellas fight for nigh half an hour without actually accomplishing anything other than reminding us all of hamsters.

I found the first of the Pirates movies to be brilliant in this regard. All of the action sequences were (relatively) short, with plenty of slapstick and jokes so I did not get bored. The final scene was a bit long, but it WAS a set-up for the death of Barbosa and the crew's capture. The Water Wheel, on the other hand, didn't accomplish anything except transporting our friends back to the beach (and it took longer than the run to the water wheel's housing from the beach did), where a scene that really could have been in the forest happened. Yes, it was cool looking. For the first five, maybe ten minutes.

Personally I like chocolate pie, but I do think that carob bean pie rates.

(Pie comments)---------->
:)

--me

[Griselda]

Finally coughed up the cash and got out of the house. The crowd was better than usual. There was only one crying baby, one kid asking questions (directly behind me), and the largest, tallest people in the theater sat right in front of us.

If that's a "good" audience, it sounds like your town has a partucularly unpleasant movie-watching crowd. :angry: Maybe it's worth the drive to another theater* if that's standard for your hometown?

* Before the new theater opened in our town, we used to drive 45 minutes to see movies in the theater with comfortable stadium seating and good sound, rather than go to the uncomfortable, crackly sound, sticky floor Theater Near Us. Of course, we don't watch a lot of movies, so it's not like we were driving out of town every weekend or something.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Elaborating on this, I see the humour of the first movie was derived mainly from verbal duelling between characters, the slapstick/silly stuff being relegated to either the pair of Royal Marines or our good ol' Ragetti and Pintel.

Ragetti and Pintel return in the sequel, but did not take up their assumed role as the shallow comic relief. Sadly, that role was taken up by the rest of the cast— the smart, almost satirical bent of the first movie was quite nonexistent here.

I was afraid for the franchise once I knew the success of Curse of the Black Pearl would bring Disney's management/marketing harpies to bear upon the development of the sequels. However, the damage wasn't as bad as I feared— if that can be taken as a hesitant grunt of accord, then take it as you will.

[Merlinios]

If that's a "good" audience, it sounds like your town has a partucularly unpleasant movie-watching crowd. :angry:

Why yes, yes it does. I think I've complained about them in other threads, but here's one of my favorite anecdotes. I went to go see Matrix Reloaded (there's mistake number one) and I literally could not hear the most interesting scene in the movie because if no one is throwing a punch for more than three minutes, the crowd gets bored and starts talking.

I miss my pre-Katrina theater down on the beach. Two-fifty entrance, no one was ever there. It was beautiful.

Before the new theater opened in our town, we used to drive 45 minutes to see movies in the theater with comfortable stadium seating and good sound, rather than go to the uncomfortable, crackly sound, sticky floor Theater Near Us. Of course, we don't watch a lot of movies, so it's not like we were driving out of town every weekend or something.

I wish. The nearest town of theater-having size is maybe an hour away, by interstate. Not happening at three bucks a gallon.

I was afraid for the franchise once I knew the success of Curse of the Black Pearl would bring Disney's management/marketing harpies to bear upon the development of the sequels. However, the damage wasn't as bad as I feared— if that can be taken as a hesitant grunt of accord, then take it as you will.

Aye, that sounds about right. I was pleasantly surprised, which doesn't mean a hell of a lot for ANY sequel. Though the film WAS pretty good, I did get the sense that a lot of the characters had lost...something. I think Sparrow lost the most, but since he was the deepest to begin with, it doesn't show as much. Seems like it fleshed out the story behind them, but in doing so, they're no longer the focus as in the first film. The characters and the interaction between them is what made it good, in my opinion. I don't know--I have a headache, and it's making my thoughts rather garbled.

--me

edit: Formatted the quotes wrong--must be bedtime.

[Zippyy]

MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN <span style="color:#FF0000">WARNED!

I didn't mind the length of the movie, but I did feel that they packed too much into it. There were scant few mellow moments to relax. There was no clear, concise plot. It wasn't a complex plot, per se, but there were a lot of unnecessary twists and turns.

At times it felt to me like they were saying to us as viewers "forget about the main plot for a bit and watch this string of well-orchestrated and humorous action sequences!" The action sequences were great, mind you, but some felt tacked-on. I wouldn't describe the original Pirates' plot as simple, but at the moment I can't think of any scenes that weren't connected to the main story (even if you don't find out how until the end).

A few gripes:

• The bamboo fruit-cabob was too slapstick for my tastes and for Pirates-type humor, I felt.<>
  
• The first kraken appearance was startling, awe-inspiring and impressive. After that, I got tired of seeing the kraken "pull its punches" for the rest of the movie.<>
  
• Why on earth did the "team" in the other suspended "ball prison" keep climbing the wall? It wasn't a race.<>
  
• There was a lot of Captain Jack, but not enough! He needs to be on camera 100% of the time.<>
  
• Davey Jones' crew reminded me too much of those shark action heroes from the late nineties. I forgot what they were called.<>
  [st]I'll end this negative post by saying I did like the movie quite a lot. I appreciated Orlando and Keira's characters more this time around, and the special effects were spectacular. I suppose it was foolish of me to think it could live up to Pirates.

[Rhydderch Hael]

...[*]Why on earth did the "team" in the other suspended "ball prison" keep climbing the wall? It wasn't a race. ...

Actually, it did turn into a race. When that one Indian fellow mentioned that it took only six to man the Black Pearl, both 'teams' realized that they had six in their number— making the guys in the 'other' cage superfluous.

I just couldn't decide whether the awkward pause both sides exchanged was because they'd realized that they could take the Black Pearl for themselves ("...Pirates code: any man who falls behind— is left behind"); or there came the realization that one of these teams had just become the expendable "redshirts" doomed to die for the entertainment of the gods (namely, the audience watching the movie).

[Zippyy]

Actually, it did turn into a race. When that one Indian fellow mentioned that it took only six to man the Black Pearl, both 'teams' realized that they had six in their number— making the guys in the 'other' cage superfluous.

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me. I had trouble understanding some of the dialogue throughout the movie, and that was probably one of the lines I couldn't interpret.

[roguebanshee]

Davey Jones' crew reminded me too much of those shark action heroes from the late nineties. I forgot what they were called.

These guys?

Saw Dead Man's Chest the other day, enjoyed it. Didn't enjoy the price I had to pay though, almost half of what a premiere DvD costs for a single ticket. And that was a cheap ticket.

[Zippyy]

These guys?

Yeah, those guys! I had the blue one that did a right hook with a spring in his waist.

I guess it was early-mid nineties, not late.

[kandrathe]

My biggest gripe was the suspense of belief in thinking that Capt Jack could get duped by the former Admiral, and not check his jar of dirt for the "item". It was pretty darned important, you'd think he'd keep very good track of it. Then, my 2nd biggest gripe was the end when Elizabeth went totally out of character in what she did to Jack. The Liz from Pirates would have never done that.

[roguebanshee]

In other news:

Your order for Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest - Special Edition
(2 Discs) has been posted.

And for less than what I'd have to pay for the non-special version in the local shops too.