Saw it last night, and it was everything I’d hoped it’d be. My expectations were met exactly. Loved it, needless to say. I got the definite impression that Will and Elizabeth were going to end up buccaneering sooner or later. What’s her last line before she kisses Will? Something about him being a pirate. Figured that to be a set up for the sequel, which’ll have them returning to sea. Of course, what concerns me is getting Johnny Depp back for the sequel. I don’t think he’s ever done one before.
It’s been years since I’ve been to Disneyland, but a lot of stuff in Tortuga seemed familiar to me. Especially the drunk guy sitting on top of two stacked wine barrels. I also noticed that a lot of the extras in Tortuga seemed to be moving stiffly and repetitivly, as if they were animatronic. Maybe I was seeing things; it was pretty subtle. Nice touch if it was intentional, though.
I dunno about a sequel . . .of course, I loved POTC. But lately, sequels have disappointed me. It seems the original movie is great, but the sequel seems rushed, explosions and stunts take the place of character and plot development, and there’s no story. For example, I loved Shanghai Noon, Men in Black, and the first Charlie’s Angels. But the sequels seemed cheaper and blah. I hope that if there’s a sequel here, that more care is taken to do a good job.
[spoiler]They don’t want to die, they want to feel. They can drink and eat, but they won’t feel or taste the food. Just like Midas’s touch, their apparent good fortune is really an horrible course, because they are rich but cannot enjoy their spoils. Remember, what Barbarossa wants to do after the curse is lifted is to eat a lot of apples, not kill or be with a woman (although that is probably second).
They didn’t expect the curse to be lifted until after they killed the soldiers, hence they were unprepared for what happened. And that’s interesting… they could have attacked the boats first, destroying the manpower, and then attacked the defenseless ship.[/spoiler]
One thing, what’s up with the freaking name of Isle de Muerta? That’s a mangled Spanish/French mix, and it’s not even grammar/syntactically correct in either of them!
Wow. I just saw this and have to echo the love. It was great. Johnny Depp’s performance was genius. And the eyeliner was a necessary part of his costume, if you ask me. Perfection… and hotness. Mmmhmm. I woulda ran off with Jack. He had all the best lines, anyways. His delivery made even the corny ones hilarious.
Few comments:
I can’t agree with Wumpus. I loved how the script didn’t rely on idiotic Hollywood cliches. The father wasn’t evil and cowardly; he was nice and seemed to genuinely love his daughter. Neither was her would-be-paramour: he was just doing his job. And I think he actually cared about her–when he realized that Elizabeth genuinely loved Will, he decided that Will would be good for her (his comments about the sword)–and basically gave them his blessing instead of gnashing his teeth and going off to sulk like any typical screwed-over-lover in a Hollywood movie would. It was very refreshing.
It was a bit too long, and the minor characters that were meant to be comic relief annoyed me (who needs comic relief when you have Jack around?) but other than that–one of my very favorite movies of the year.
I don’t think anyone is actually trying to stop them from lifting the curse. At first everyone is trying to rescue Elizabeth. Then Jack stops them because they’re going to slit Will’s throat, “just to make sure,” instead of only cutting his hand. They need to break free of the pirates first, and spill the blood on his own, so he won’t be… well, dead.
The two comic relief pirates are sent out disguised as women in a dinghy to act as a diversion. The wooden-eye pirate comments “for the first time in my life I feel pretty!” and the other one snaps, “I don’t feel pretty!” then they start bickering and their boat drifts into the moonlight. Some shocked marines see a boat that apparently contained two women transfigured into skeletons yelling and trying to choke each other. Priceless!
They were dressed as two women to avoid suspicion. Exactly how common would it have been for the British Navy to encounter two women in a rowboat in the middle of the night?
They were dressed as women to attract the interest of the British, and to hide from the moonlight (by using the parasols). The rest of the pirates sneaked onto the ship and came up behind the crew, who were all busy looking the other way. The crew would have all been killed had the two pirates not started fighting. One of the pirates shot at one of the crew members, knocking his hat off. When the crew member turned around, he saw the pirates sneaking up behind him.
The pirates in the boat were distractions. I don’t think they had to be women, they just had to be something that would distract the crew of the boats. And seeing a couple women rowing out in the middle of nowhere would be just weird enough to be a distraction and, considering they’re “women”, the British would be unlikely to open fire on them.
Not a valid argument - Nemo is a major character in the movie, and he had his mother figure into the story in a big way - the reason his mother isn’t around is because she died trying to protect him and all his siblings at the start of the movie, which seemed rather grim for a Disney movie to me. That’s why his father was so overprotective & miserable.
[spoiler]Also, the British knew that the pirates had captured Elizabeth before & taken her away, they may have believed that it was a couple of captives escaping & been distracted.
One daft thing is that the pirates all surrendered on seeing that they could be hurt & die. Even though, it being Disney, they didn’t show it, you know they hung every last one of them before they returned to port. Why didn’t they just hang Jack? Probably for the same reason they didn’t just hang Will - they were trying to decide if he deserved an act of clemency based on helping to rescue Elizabeth (& in Jack’s case, Will as well).
I also liked the way they didn’t make the British out to be complete unfeeling, stuffed shirts (for a change). Elizabeth’s father is sitting trying to advise her that she shouldn’t marry the commodore if she doesn’t want to, even though it’s a really good match & obviously one he approves of, whilst she’s escaping to rescue Will (& therefore, the other pirates to help her). Same with the commodore & that comment he made about the sword, which someone else has already pointed out. In addition to him showing feeling, he’s showing intelligence too - he at least knows that it’s Will that’s the master blacksmith, rather than the drunken old sot.[/spoiler]
…there isn’t a speech, a line of dialogue, or even a facial expression anywhere earlier in the movie that so much as hints that he would ever be willing to either give up Eilizabeth or let a pirate go. (When he cooperates with Jack earlier it’s clear he’s only doing it reluctantly because there are bigger things at stake.) His change of heart is out of character, plain and simple. It’s as if Jack were suddenly to announce to us at the end that he was a straight-and-true British Admiral all along, and just pretending to be a pirate.
Contrast this to Elizabeth’s father, where we are given signs earlier that he might be willing let Will and Elizagbeth marry. His change of heart makes perfect sense.
There’s also a small plot hole with the sword, because
…earlier in the movie, the movie goes out of its way to make us think that the Commodore believes the sword was made by the drunken master, not Will. At the end, though, suddenly the Commodore knows that the sword was made by Will all along. Now, I suppose you could argue that the Commodore was just pretending to think the master made the sword just to annoy Will. But we’re never actually shown that; it’s purely an after-the-movie rationalization.
These are all symptoms of careless writing, not a fresh, surprising finish. Though I wouldn’t blame the writers. The final sequence has all the signs of being something the producers or the studio foisted on the script at the last minute. In particular, you can feel the heavy hand of Disney in the implied morals: Authority Is Always Right In The End, and though you might go off and have a few adventures when you’re young and foolish, There’s No Place Like Home.
They probably kept saying that it was the drunken sod who made it just out of custom. They knew that it was Will who did it, but the credit goes to the master, not the laborer, something that hasn’t changed in some workplaces.
I like how there’s a hot and competent ladie. but sereously she actually does somthing other than cause proplems. and on the other hand she is sooo hot,rrrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrr;)
There’s something to be said for hot, fiesty, would-be pirate chicks. Though actually, I think it would be best said with an appreciative noise, like you’ve used.
I saw it and I absolutely loved it. As soon as I saw the previews, I knew I had to see it. A movie with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. How lucky can a girl get? I must say, they both lived up to my expectations. Johnny Depp absolutely owned this movie. He was perfect. I can’t understand why they ended the movie like they did. teleute12’s suggestion was much better, and would have made for something much better to watch, hehe. Anyway, definitely one I’m going to see at least once more at the theater, then I’m going to buy it on DVD and watch it over and over. It was different then I expected, but very fun and enjoyable too watch. Go see it if you haven’t already.
I don’t agree with this assessment at all. In fact, I’d say the opposite: the movie was headed straight for a focus-grouped standard adventure movie ending (and I would’ve been happy with that since the action scenes were so well-done), but it surprised me by adding a trifle of complexity to the Commodore’s character at the end. It’s still far from being a probing character study, but it didn’t take the predictable way out.
The studio-driven ending that you describe would’ve had the Commodore shaking his fist at Elizabeth and Will as they ride off together on Sparrow’s boat. Her dad would’ve shaken his head sagely and said something about true love always winning in the end. The Commodore would most likely have ended up covered in poo or knocked back into the ocean, or possibly had a bucket over his head.
Instead, the movie showed that the Commodore wasn’t all that bad a guy. It wasn’t a change to his character, really – all we’d seen of his character so far was that he was very career-driven and believed in order above all. The ending revealed that he wasn’t really a villain, he was just doing his job. And he was never all that passionate about Elizabeth, and he acknowledged that – it was just a marriage of convenience to a very pretty local woman. The job & rank still come first.
As for the business of his reaction to Turner and the sword, there was the implication that he knew full well that Turner had crafted it, not his drunken boss. But propriety forced him to acknowledge that master’s role, not the apprentice. The scene was written so that he was indirectly complimenting Turner on his craftsmanship, without coming out and acknowledging that his master was a drunken slob (which would’ve been rude and inappropriate for someone of his rank).
Just caught this on my second viewing- you’re right, BuckleberryFerry, he doesn’t stagger much at all when’s he on the ships- it’s only on land. He also doesn’t really stagger per se- he has this weird half rolling/half mincing gait. But whenever he’s standing still, he sways almost constantly. This could of course be due to the generalized drunkeness/craziness of the character and the Kieth Richards influence Johhny Depp said he worked into his portrayal of Jack Sparrow.
However, I like the idea that this was consciously done with the conept of “sea-legs” in mind. Anyone who’s spent time on a boat, especially in rough seas, will tell you that you just get used to the rocking and swaying and learn to adjust for it. (NB: Sailors almost never stand with their knees together.) Another strange thing about sea-legs is that they continue on land for quite some time, and especially when you’re standing still. The world actually appears to be rocking and swaying even when you’re standing on solid ground because you’re so used to that motion. It would have been even more perceptible during the Age of Sail when ships were nothing like they are today and far more at the mercy of wind and water. Spend enough time on sea-legs and you might never get your land-legs back. Couple this with a pirate’s legendary fondness for spiritous liquors, and you’ve got a guy who can’t possibly stand still except when everything else is moving.
