I found it to be about a 6 out of ten. Entertaining, but enough eyerolling moments that it took me out of the movie a lot. (Elizabeth Swan, girding her pirate friends to the noble battle. Badguy not even saying ‘fire’, The East India Co having what looked to be several thousand ships)
The plot holes were SO huge, that I pretty much just gave up trying to explain it and watch the movie. Best not shine the light too bright on it.
This is an annoying trend in modern movies - giving your heroes enemies beyond all hope, but beyond all reason, too. The Orc scene in Moria in Fellowship of the Ring is like this. It’s not enough to show sufficient enemies to kill the heroes, the screen has to be filled with digitally replicated opponents so that even the dimmest viewer knows that the heroes need a miracle. :smack:
Takes me out of the moment.
Si
They seemed to go out of their way to make Beckett and his henchman seem omniscient and omnipotent. In the case of the Kraken’s death, Beckett pulled the “force your new slave kill a loved one” trick. It helps to break the will of said slave. It also made it so ILM, The Orphanage, The Collective, et al. could do new and different F/X instead of doing the sea monster bit again.
It was a bit set up for the East India Co. crew’s obvious final demise. Whether the method of that demise felt satisfying is completely in the eyes of the viewer.
What is this new digital devilry?
How else was WETA supposed to show off Massive?
Watching King Kong (also a WETA production), they did a sweeping pan around ‘the big fence’ that felt exactly like a Lord of the Rings flyover.
With the battle scenes at Helms Deep and Minas Tirith. And note I didn’t complain about those, the size of the armies were actually appropriate and looked fine.
But an ocean full of sailing ships - rubbish.
Si
I saw this Monday night and was, frankly, disappointed.
One thing that bugged me was during the big battle scene at the end. It seems like only the Pearl was doing any fighting; all the other pirate ships were just hanging back and cheering at the appropriate moments.
I didn’t realize that was the Kraken washed up on the beach; I thought it was a whale! Do they ever explain how the Kraken dies?
All those multiple Jack Sparrows, while pretty to look at (oh hell yeah), struck me as a little too cheesy. Johnny Depp is a good enough actor to portray a man going slowly mad without the help of doppelgangers. I noticed one of the Sparrows had a large amount of text tattooed on his back, did anyone catch what it said?
I will say that Orlando Bloom, at the very end, was smokin’ hot. I don’t know why, but take an average-looking guy and put him in a pirate costume, and it just makes me want to climb him.
There will be a part four. The only question is will they set it before or after Will’s stint as the Dutchman ends.
Thinking about it, this bothers me, too. At least in The Fellowship of the Ring Moria scene, the heroes’ victory (or at least continued survival) makes a little sense–all those orcs are scared off by the approach of the now-awakened Balrog, allowing the Fellowship to escape while Gandalf makes his big stand.
In At World’s End, though, Beckett freezes in combat, so not only does every other soldier desert the ship, but this huge digitally recreated fleet turns tail and runs against–what eight, nine ships? Yes, I get that the Flying Dutchman is magical and practically unbeatable and all, but still…
Yes, Elizabeth’s Pirate Queen outfit was completely unrevealing, but it was also insanely sexy. You’ll just have to take my word on this. A huge kudos to whoever did the costumes, incidentally (just don’t ask me how authentic any of them were).
Shortly before the scene where we see the washed-up Kraken, Beckett is threatening Davy Jones (or rather, his heart), and complaining of his insubordinance. He says something about how Davy still hasn’t killed his “pet”, and points the cannons at the heart. So presumably, Davy, under threat from Beckett, ordered the Kraken to beach itself. As for Beckett’s reasons, presumably, he saw the Kraken as a power he couldn’t control, or worse, a power that Davy Jones might hold over him, and he didn’t want the competition.
That wasn’t what I thought I saw. I thought Beckett said something about killing the Kraken and if he [Beckett] could take down the kraken, Davy didn’t stand a chance and had better behave.
Could be wrong though, I have been before.
One theme that was pounded into my head was the overwhelming dirt and filth of the movie. Damn, but if I had been up close and personal to Sao Feng’s filthy nails, I might’ve retched all over him. Except for Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner, Beckett and Norrington, I thought dark brown teeth were normal. It’s a good thing this movie didn’t have Smell-o-vision.
As someone mentioned upthread, has anyone figured out what Calypso said after she became a giantess?
Although she was played by an ethnic Japanese actress – Takayo Fischer, nee Tsubouchi – I think Mistress Ching was supposed to be Chinese. At least, Ching is a Chinese name. Did her boat look like a junk? We saw the movie earlier this week, and I don’t remember now.
But my question has to do with the time period of the trilogy. Singapore was founded in 1819, but somehow I was under the impression that the movie was set in the 18th century. Did they ever state a year? Like at the beginning of the first film? There may have been some sort of small fishing village on the site prior to 1819, but it would not have looked anything like in the movie until well into the 19th century.
Oh, and the wife and I thought this third installment was better than the second but not as good as the first.
This is a well-known flub of the Pirates movies, going back to the first one, that they keep referencing Singapore in a time period well before Singapore existed.
From the IMDB page on Dead Man’s Chest:
Anachronisms: Although several people mentioned that Jack Sparrow had gone to ‘Singapore’, that island country was not found and given the name ‘Singapore’ until the early 19th century by Sir Stamford Raffles of the East India Company in 1819.
Ah HA! I thought so. And the Golden Age of Pirates was, what? About 1675 to 1725 or thereabouts?
Not knowing ANYTHING about large sailing boats, it seems like they behave more like motorboats with sails than anything that had to rely on the wind for movement.
Beckett had Davy kill the kraken (“his pet”) inbetween movies. It was pretty clear to me from that scene that the kraken had already been dispatched at the begining.
I thought she said “Fools” or something to that affect… and then she got a really bad case of the crabs…
LOL. I WILL say, the whole ‘stone crab’ incident WAS a good bit of braincramp filming.
Is he mad? Is the Sun getting to him? Have the voices always been there? I didn’t expect a drug trip in the middle of a Disney flick.