Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End was outstanding.

[leftofthedial]

Now that I've seen it, I just don't understand at all the reviews that claimed they couldn't tell what it was about or that the story was confusing. Maybe they arrived late and missed the premise or maybe they just can't understand anything more complex than a Seinfeld episode or maybe they just weren't paying attention. Seriously, the premise was made clear in the first fifteen minutes and then everyone proceeded accordingly. I was never confused for a second as to what was going on in terms of the plot of the movie. Naturally, the usual pirate double crosses, backstabbing, prevarication and trickery, not to mention theoccasional triumph of a character's nobler instincts, provided a few twists and turns, but the overarching plot was clear and even fairly simple start to finish.

The action sequences were absolutely spectacular, outdoing even the great battle scenes of the first two installments. The comic relief characters and situations were very effective and laugh-out-loud funny at times. Keith Richards' cameo as Jack Sparrow's dad was terrific. He was excellent and had a great character and the best line of the movie--maybe the best line of all three movies in the trilogy. The romance angles were done superbly and in grand swashbuckler tradition. The effects were stellar. The ships were stars in their own right. The plot was engaging. There also were more filmmaker-ish touches than the first two movies, including the sequence of Jack in Davy Jones' Locker, which was both surreal and funny. I think it even had some not-so-subtle digs at the bush cabal and the current attacks on civil liberties and the pursuit by some of more wealth and more power at all costs. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'd give it an 8.5 on a scale of 10. Far better than installment two I thought.

[Connonym]

1. I took my kids today and we enjoyed it

#2 I was wiggling in my seat wondering how long it would go on but this one kept the pace and I didn't get bored. A good fun summer movie, which is all it's intended to be.

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. I thought it was severely lacking.

In my opinion, the fundamental flaw was casting. I couldn't care less about Kiera Knightly. She and Orlando Bloom had no chemistry, imo. And Depp was really just a buffoon in this one - no depths at all to the character.

The plot was not incomprehensible, but the characters were weak, imo.

[leftofthedial]

6. SPOILERS I'll buy the Keira comment. This movie relies heavily on her character

and she didn't really nail it.

For the first time since the first Lord of the Rings film, I actually liked Orlando Bloom. I thought he did very well and I thought the chemistry between the two in the "betrayal" scene when each wonders whether they can trust the other was excellent. The swashbuckling marriage was excellent.

[philosophie_en_rose]

9. Orlando Bloom did improve.

If he had a more interesting love interest, I think that the story would have actually been touching.

[Shine]

3. Well, I'm glad you liked it. We thought it was just OK...far from "outstanding"

but entertaining, nonetheless. We would've seen it regardless of the bad reviews it's gotten.

Do you think there was a set up for another movie at the end? We did.

:hi:

[leftofthedial]

8. I think it could go either way

it wrapped things up well, but because they spent so much "extra" time following the characters after the climax and especially because of the scene after the credits, they definitely could go for four.

:hi:

[AlCzervik]

4. Glad you enjoyed it so much, wish i could say the same.

i think you're over reaching a bit though to be honest, yes the opening scene before the title sequence started was very interesting but beyond that i didn't get much of a political vibe from it.

[Mike Daniels]

20. I fail to see any political point either

Especially when one is going to be hard pressed to offer any historical support that pirates or their compatriots were the victims of oppressive governments trying to stifle their freedom to cruise the seas.

It made for a neat atmospheric opening but any movie where pirates are the heros and a trading/commerce company is the primary villian is obviously escapist fantasy.

[bridgit]

21. um, disagreeing here, "trading/commerce company (not being) the primary villian"...

right on the pirate oppression thing as a matter of GP, but with The Sun Never Sets On The British Empire as a rallying cry, many other indigenous peoples would not question they're being no-less than villainous in many locales around the world

[Mike Daniels]

26. Point taken, but

in the general scope of POTC the EIC was a villian not for its treatment of native populations but strictly for cracking down on "peaceful" pirate activity.

Just as a side-note, during the "golden age" of piracy, the native merchants/rulers located in the Indian Ocean had "contracts" with the EIC that held the British government and EIC liable for loses incurred due to piracy as most merchant convoys travelled under EIC protection.

The activities of William Kidd and other East Indian pirates of British persuasion led to a lot of uncomfortable moments for the British government as a result of native rulers holding them to these agreements.

[northzax]

25. it's anti-mercantalist

the East India Company wants to flatten out the world, homogenize everything and make it safe for corporate trade on a massive scale. the Pirates represent the glorious individual fighting against the system, with localised differences and culture. the EIC world is clean, ordered, technological and bright, but centrally controlled, the Pirate's world is messy, chaotic, magical and dark, but free. subtle, huh?


and yes, it's certainly whitewashing the history of piracy (notice how the Pirates never seem to actually engage in, well, piracy? sure, there's some drinking, and gambling and fighting, but you never see them, I don't know, take over a merchant ship and kill everyone) they are just freedom loving souls, out sailing the seven seas and somehow accumulating wealth and living the high life. it's like a mafia movie where you never see them extort protection money from the local florist.

[leftofthedial]

29. it's not a documentary, so historical pirates are irrelevant

the entire sequence before the titles at the start of the movie was a pretty direct slam on bush anti-privacy policies and all in the name of protecting the colony against evil doers of whom the citizens are afraid. In other words, for the movie's reality, it equated the pirates with the ruling authority's equivalent of phony "Terrorists." I think it was unmistakably political in that sense.

the rest of the movie was just an entertainment.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. I can't understand your review.

And Seinfeld? I can't follow that at all. Too complicated.

[leftofthedial]

7. I knew that

because you're not the kind to not pay attention

[Pale Blue Dot]

10. Huh?

I'm sorry, I was thinking of something else. :D

[leftofthedial]

11. LOL

Nobody move! I dropped my brain. :D

[Chovexani]

14. I totally died then

The comedic bits...Jesus they were awesome.

The rum jokes never stop being funny. And neither does the monkey.

[DainBramaged]

12. Reviewers were wrong on "2 , they said it was great and I though it sucked

They are usually wrong, and my best friend agrees with me on my post. He said that to me last night and is at the movies right now (he gets out of work at 9).

[Chovexani]

13. I totally agree

It was so much awesome. Like, I think I'm going to be squeeing for the next week.

KEITH RICHARDS FOR THE WIN. :D

[spinbaby]

15. I didn't care for it

Loved the first two, liked the first half of this one, but then it got to be just too full of plot complications and special effects. None of the characters really came into their own in this movie--no personality going on. All in all, I was disappointed.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. The wedding was one of the best scenes I've ever seen.

It made me long to get married myself, or better yet to become a ship's captain and persuade some of my friends to get married, while under attack by zombie hordes.

I saw it today, and I've spent the rest of the day *longing* to yell "I now declare you man and wife" and then stab someone.

I'm annoyed that they put a bit after the credits, though - I didn't find out til afterwards, and left without seeing it, wondering what became of Elizabeth.

[JoDog]

27. What happened?

I had to make a run for the ladies' room as the credits rolled. Can anyone tell me what happened? Please!

[ashling]

17. Aren't you special LOL

actually, I enjoyed it. It was a little overdone in parts and kind of long

Some of the accents (Calypso for instance) were overbroad and hard to understand.

Some of it was pointless.

[leftofthedial]

18. well, when you get down to it, it was all pointless

and Calypso was damn near un-understandable

I watched it, as I did all three in the series, from the point of view of the swashbuckler movie tradition. I think this one done the genre proud.

[ashling]

28. the swashbuckler movie tradition

I thoroughly enjoyed Captain Blood.

[Mike Daniels]

19. It was fine for a brain-candy movie but overlong by a good 40 or so minutes

The battle scene was the major offender. A bunch of fighting that doesn't advance beyond "smash, slash and shoot" doesn't impress the longer it's on screen.

Plus the movie seemed to indulge weirdness for the sake of weirdness.

I enjoyed the film but it was definitely padded out under the idea that bigger/longer equals better.

[bridgit]

22. we enjoyed it...

it's just a movie

[unpossibles]

23. I thought it was fun but my friends didn't enjoy it as much

it had some weak spots - the tiny Jacks on his shoulder were pretty "Army of Darkness" level of silly, and the movie was a bit too long and I felt the plot (which I followed just fine) was a bit more convoluted than it needed to be at times.

I liked it though, but not as much as the first one. Then again, all of them are fun and way better than I expected based on a Disney ride. Maybe that's the secret: going in with no expectations beyond it being the film version of a "dark ride."

[DS1]

24. double crossing double crossers double crossing each others double crosses

really isn't that interesting. sorry.

[The Inquisitive]

34. That's what I found rather annoying as well

Most of the times a double cross acts as a sort of plot twist. In this film however, the double cross became rather expected.

I got quite tired of Elizabeth as a character. While a female lead is an essential to most good films I think her role was designed poorly.

[Geek_Girl]

30. I enjoyed it

It was a very fun movie. I hope they make another.

[dysfunctional press]

31. unless they'll be doing a fourth one, i didn't much care for the ending.

and it was a bit longish.

personally, i also don't think that keith richards' cameo scenes added all that much to the film.

[1monster]

33. Well, his part may not have added much to the movie, but I loved being

able to lean over to my movie companion and whisper that Keith Richard didn't even need makeup to make him look like a (sea) washed up, dissipated, dissolute, self-indulged, debauched degenerate like the other actors and actresses needed for the same effect. :D

[Dervill Crow]

32. I also thought it was better than #2.

I drank a 32-ounce diet coke and had to run to the "necessary" a couple of times and missed out on some of the plot twists, especially since there were kids in the lobby who wanted their picture taken with a "real pirate." http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6557592 shameless plug
:rofl:

Keith Richards was a bit of a disappointment, but Bill Nighy was great. I'm looking forward to being able to turn on the closed captioning and find out what Tia was saying. I do medical transcription editing and QA and actually earn my living figuring out what unintelligible ESL people are saying, and that character's accent was like nothing I've ever heard.