Lounge of Tomorrow - View Single Post - Get It Off Your (Dead Man's) Chest: Pirates Movie Reviews

innerSpaceman · 07-08-2006, 11:34 AM

I have to disagree with Alex about the story messiness of the first film vs. this one.

The thing I've come to admire about the original (and, as CP will endlessly remind me, I wasn't a fan after my first viewing) is its tight story contstruction ... especially in the first two acts. The first third is almost a textbook case of character introduction, action introduction, and plot intorduction. The second act follows through nicely, and the third act ties things up a little haphazardly, but with conciseness.

Fun characterizations and zifty zombie effects cannot carry me for multiple viewings. This is why I will not be seeing Dead Man's Chest over and over.

As a sequel, it was even worse than I could have imagined. It's got all the tired repetiveness of character and weaksauce plot of most sequels, but - as ubergeek pointed out - the whole thing was merely a thinly-disguised set-up for a third movie. For god's sake, if they had to stretch it out to two movies, why was one of them 2-1/2 hours long!!

But, I liked Bootstrap Bill and I sorta dug some of the squid crew of the Flying Dutchman. Bootstrap's scenes with Will Turner were a little bit of the character expansion that good sequels provide. I think it's poor sequels that stoop, as this one did, to having the main characters squabble and backstab each other as a pathetically obvious device for a kiss-and-make-up denoument in a later film.

And I don't know what it is about Davy Jones that didn't do it for me. He's interesting looking, the performance was bittersweet and moving. But it wasn't menacing, imo. Maybe it's difficult to strike a balance between scenery-chewing pirate and legitimately dangerous villain ... but it's been done before in this very same series and -- (even though the drowned cat's out of the bag, I'll use spoiler tags) --

Spoiler:

The salutes to the ride were fewer this time, but still enjoyable. Tortuga seems to be the stand-in for the ride's sacked village, and the movie's dunking well scene this time out was in fine keeping with that set-up. The gag about the prisoners whistling for the dog was cute. And the actual dog's ultimate fate was interesting, if you consider reversing the spelling.

I shouted out "throw me a roll" during the dead-on, firefly-filled bayou swamp scene, but I didn't get a laugh.

07-08-2006, 11:34 AM	#14
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	I have to disagree with Alex about the story messiness of the first film vs. this one. The thing I've come to admire about the original (and, as CP will endlessly remind me, I wasn't a fan after my first viewing) is its tight story contstruction ... especially in the first two acts. The first third is almost a textbook case of character introduction, action introduction, and plot intorduction. The second act follows through nicely, and the third act ties things up a little haphazardly, but with conciseness. Fun characterizations and zifty zombie effects cannot carry me for multiple viewings. This is why I will not be seeing Dead Man's Chest over and over. As a sequel, it was even worse than I could have imagined. It's got all the tired repetiveness of character and weaksauce plot of most sequels, but - as ubergeek pointed out - the whole thing was merely a thinly-disguised set-up for a third movie. For god's sake, if they had to stretch it out to two movies, why was one of them 2-1/2 hours long!! But, I liked Bootstrap Bill and I sorta dug some of the squid crew of the Flying Dutchman. Bootstrap's scenes with Will Turner were a little bit of the character expansion that good sequels provide. I think it's poor sequels that stoop, as this one did, to having the main characters squabble and backstab each other as a pathetically obvious device for a kiss-and-make-up denoument in a later film. And I don't know what it is about Davy Jones that didn't do it for me. He's interesting looking, the performance was bittersweet and moving. But it wasn't menacing, imo. Maybe it's difficult to strike a balance between scenery-chewing pirate and legitimately dangerous villain ... but it's been done before in this very same series and -- (even though the drowned cat's out of the bag, I'll use spoiler tags) -- Spoiler: -- the one thing that might be redeeming about the third movie is that Geoffrey Rush is back as Captain Barbossa The salutes to the ride were fewer this time, but still enjoyable. Tortuga seems to be the stand-in for the ride's sacked village, and the movie's dunking well scene this time out was in fine keeping with that set-up. The gag about the prisoners whistling for the dog was cute. And the actual dog's ultimate fate was interesting, if you consider reversing the spelling. I shouted out "throw me a roll" during the dead-on, firefly-filled bayou swamp scene, but I didn't get a laugh. Last edited by innerSpaceman : 07-08-2006 at 11:40 AM.
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