Pirates On Parade [SPOILERS]
Well...I didn't love it as much as I loved the first one, or even the second one. It was too big, too messy, too let's-cram-everything-we-can-into-it-to-knock-everyone's-socks-off.
Trouble is, that policy didn't leave any room for anyone to breathe. There are practically no quiet, reflective moments of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT where we can watch Jack and Will and Elizabeth grow and change. They do both, actually, but you have to catch it on the wing and it's not given the respect it deserves.
The movie looks fantastic, though. Spectacular CGI, especially the last 40 minutes. Did I mention it runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, more with the credits? Which you must stay through, because the Easter egg after is really the payoff for Elizabeth and Will.
And I think Will's fate was perfect, the only one possible, really. Though I had predicted it for Jack at least a year ago, it works better this way...
Performances are of course all fine. The usual suspects---Johnny, Keira, Orlando---and joined by Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, who chomps on every piece of scenery he can grab and almost steals the show from Jack.
And the real surprises: Bill Nighy as Davy Jones and Tom Hollander as Lord Beckett. Suddenly human and deeply inhuman respectively. Fine, fine work from both men.
Some truly gorgeous moments, though:
The "soulsail" under icy starry skies, the white wispy forms in the water, the dead in the little boats with lanterns. I did get all misty seeing Governor Swann...and Elizabeth's grief. But it was simply beautiful.
Seeing the Pearl come over the dunes.
The flanking maneuver against the Endeavour carried out by the Pearl and the Dutchman.
Seeing the resurrected Dutchman, all new, and her de-crustaceanized crewmen, and her new captain...very deeply pleasing.
Assorted sunsets and sunrises, which always make me happy.
The "turnover" moment when they come back to the world: the running to and fro was kind of silly, but it was a really neat conceit and worked very well.
So there's lots of great stuff. Pity it's all swamped to the bilges by the overkill.
Jack's traditional dramatic entrance was a bit delayed, and it's a reprise when it finally comes along, but it's different enough to make it worth it.
The music was deafening, and at the same time could hardly be heard. No new motifs that I could pick out...I'll be buying the soundtrack for sure.
So on the whole, I enjoyed it, but I just wanted and expected more. More of a satisfying finish to the trilogy. More stuff that made me really laugh or sentimentally tear up. Just more of an...end. Instead, it kind of dribbled away its punch in mini-endings. Which is the complaint MDF Mary had against "Return of the King."
But several "endings" were needed for that one. Here, I don't think so much, even though everyone's thread did have to be resolved. And I know they had to leave it open-ended for the sequels (oh come on, you know Johnny's already effectively aboard for more a couple years down the road!), but I still wish it could have been rounded off more satisfyingly.
I'll go back. But not a lot.
Trouble is, that policy didn't leave any room for anyone to breathe. There are practically no quiet, reflective moments of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT where we can watch Jack and Will and Elizabeth grow and change. They do both, actually, but you have to catch it on the wing and it's not given the respect it deserves.
The movie looks fantastic, though. Spectacular CGI, especially the last 40 minutes. Did I mention it runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, more with the credits? Which you must stay through, because the Easter egg after is really the payoff for Elizabeth and Will.
And I think Will's fate was perfect, the only one possible, really. Though I had predicted it for Jack at least a year ago, it works better this way...
Performances are of course all fine. The usual suspects---Johnny, Keira, Orlando---and joined by Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, who chomps on every piece of scenery he can grab and almost steals the show from Jack.
And the real surprises: Bill Nighy as Davy Jones and Tom Hollander as Lord Beckett. Suddenly human and deeply inhuman respectively. Fine, fine work from both men.
Some truly gorgeous moments, though:
The "soulsail" under icy starry skies, the white wispy forms in the water, the dead in the little boats with lanterns. I did get all misty seeing Governor Swann...and Elizabeth's grief. But it was simply beautiful.
Seeing the Pearl come over the dunes.
The flanking maneuver against the Endeavour carried out by the Pearl and the Dutchman.
Seeing the resurrected Dutchman, all new, and her de-crustaceanized crewmen, and her new captain...very deeply pleasing.
Assorted sunsets and sunrises, which always make me happy.
The "turnover" moment when they come back to the world: the running to and fro was kind of silly, but it was a really neat conceit and worked very well.
So there's lots of great stuff. Pity it's all swamped to the bilges by the overkill.
Jack's traditional dramatic entrance was a bit delayed, and it's a reprise when it finally comes along, but it's different enough to make it worth it.
The music was deafening, and at the same time could hardly be heard. No new motifs that I could pick out...I'll be buying the soundtrack for sure.
So on the whole, I enjoyed it, but I just wanted and expected more. More of a satisfying finish to the trilogy. More stuff that made me really laugh or sentimentally tear up. Just more of an...end. Instead, it kind of dribbled away its punch in mini-endings. Which is the complaint MDF Mary had against "Return of the King."
But several "endings" were needed for that one. Here, I don't think so much, even though everyone's thread did have to be resolved. And I know they had to leave it open-ended for the sequels (oh come on, you know Johnny's already effectively aboard for more a couple years down the road!), but I still wish it could have been rounded off more satisfyingly.
I'll go back. But not a lot.
posted by Patricia Kennealy Morrison | 2:54 PM
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