Pirates III: At World's End

Jake & I saw this about 2 weeks ago and I haven't had time to say anything about it. We rarely go to the movies 'cuz it's expensive for us- babysitter + movie for 2 = LOTS... I know we're pathetic, but we typically end up just renting movies. However, this was a movie Jake really wanted to see in the theatre and so did I, so it happened.

Okay, I loved the first one: Curse of the Black Pearl, and enjoyed the second one: Dead Man's Chest- although it was weird tone-wise. Dead Man's Chest was kind of like two movies in one- the first part was very similar in humor and mood to Curse, but then suddenly it veered into this "almost-horror" movie with Davy Jones and his crew. I still enjoyed it, but wow, was it different than the first one and 1/2 movies... Really dark, rather grotesque, kind of scary. Well, At World's End is like the second half of Dead Man's Chest- dark, dark, dark. I liked it- it was fun, fast-paced and a great adventure, but very dark.

Johnny Depp is fantastic, of course, as always. Haven't really ever seen him be bad- even if I don't like the movie (ie- I thought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was awful), but he was very good in it. I've seen many weird movies with him- Edward Scissorhands, The Ed Wood thing (oddly, I enjoyed this. Definitely not something I recommend to everyone, though), Cry-Baby, Benny & Joon, Chocolat, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (the movie that proved he could ACT, excellent if you've missed it)... - So, the one thing I've got to say is, that boy picks weird movies... Anyway, moving on. Of course, he's fantastic and really he is the one who makes the Pirates movies what they are- fun adventures with a serious quirk-thing.

I thought the other actors were fantastic, too- Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom are both beautiful and a pleasure to watch. Chow-Yun Fat surprised me- for some reason I didn't know he was in this- of course, he's great. There were so many wonderful actors in this one that I really can't mention them all. The director definitely is an actor's director- (the way an actor describes a director who allows them to have fun in the part and really do character acting).

Costumes- fantastic and fun (costuming & makeup are the only backstage things I really liked and would have been interested in doing- whoever did these had FUN- particularly with the Pirate Council & their nationalities); Computer graphics- fun and weird (somebody tell me what was up with the crabs...); Setting- oh, yeah. Everything fit together, down to the maps and ropes and weather worn ships- beautiful; Action- exciting and flavorful...

It was cool to see a broader variety of pirates and to meet Jack's dad... Cool to see the characters again and how they've grown. Cool to see Elizabeth have an opportunity to lead more than Will around, and to see her in the rescuing role... Cool to see things finally come to a conclusion instead of being drawn out further... In general, I liked the movie, probably would give it a B+.

Here are my 3 big problems. (You might not want to read this if you haven't seen the movie yet, It's not really a spoiler, but...) :

1) It was confusing. I don't mean to complain, but I DON'T get confused in movies. Jake does, and he'll whisper, "what was that?" and I'll quickly go, "she's his daughter"... ya know? But I was confused some of the time... And I saw Dead Man's Chest fairly recently... (Jake was confused more than I was, but that's pretty normal- he doesn't like really fast-paced action) I'm gonna have to see it again and see if it was me or the movie...

2) The Calypso thing was built way up and then it was just kind of thrown away. I don't want to give anything away if you haven't seen it, but this should have been bigger... or more important or something, I don't know...

SPOILER:
3) The ending stunk. Of course, we stayed for the little bit after the credits and it makes it somewhat better, but it still stinks. Surely they could have come up with something better than this! We go through the entire series waiting for them to get together and fix everything and they get this! One night every 10 years! Blech. That is not love... Like it's supposed to be some romantic thing for him to never die and her to grow older, have a baby and raise it by herself?? I think love is going through every day together, arguing, working it out, finding the compromises, having fun together... Not one night of passionate sex... The ending really bugged me- It so fits in with with today's culture of selfishness and self-sufficiency: each of them getting what they can from each other and then going on with their lives and not having to deal with the other person's smelly socks or bad habits, or taking care of their partner when they're sick or can't get a job... Okay, there's my two cents worth- probably more than enough.