Prairie and I went out to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie last night — one of the few movies coming out this summer that we were both excited about enough to head out on opening night. The reviews (which I avoided looking at until this morning) aren’t being terribly kind, but we had a lot of fun.
I’ll agree that it’s longer than it really needed to be (though Prairie doesn’t seem to think so), and there were a few moments when I found myself wishing that things would just slow down a little bit (particularly during the peak moments of the Kraken’s attacks). However, those small fumbles aside, the movie’s a perfect bit of popcorn summer fun: raucous, silly, over-the-top swashbuckling entertainment.
And I love, love, love Davy Jones and his crew! The effects work was incredible; even more so when, rather than pulling the standard effects-heavy movie trick of leaving the most complicated bad guy effects half-obscured in rain and night shots, they actually let Davy Jones and his crew go cavorting about in the light of day. What a treat — rainy nights are such an easy way to (attempt to) hide shoddy effects (Godzilla, anyone?), that it’s fun to see a movie with enough confidence in its work to let it be seen in all its glory.
So, iffy reviews aside, it was a winner in our book, and we’re looking forward to the next one.
“ToriMix v2” by Amos, Tori from the album Difficult Listening Hour (2001, 46:37).
I’ll see the movie shortly. But I should point out to you that Jonny Depp has stated that Playing Captian Jack Sparrow is the closest he has ever come to playing himself.
Even when the interviewer stated that Captian Jack acted if not gay at least a bit nelly. Depp said that’s because I’m bit nelly.
I can’t tell you how refreshing it is for a major (straight) male star to be comfortable enough with his own manhood to admit such a thing. My hats off to Jonny and I wish him all the success he so richly deserves. His willingness to push the edge without fear of failure should be a model for all up and coming actors.
I saw the movie on opening night – I was also very excited to see it, and I also avoided all the early reviews.
In a nutshell, I enjoyed the movie but I just felt “something” was missing. I think Jack was just a little bit off compared to the first one… or maybe it was just less catch phrases, I don’t know. I’ll probably see it again.
I like long movies – when they’re good – and this one seemed to drag a little bit, not much, it didn’t ruin it, but they probably could have trimmed just a little bit. Or focused more on the high action perhaps.