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).