I saw the movie yesterday with my parents and sweet pea, and we had a super time. It was great fun for everyone in the theatre (240 people). I liked the jokes they had from the first movie, if they were making them before, surely they would continue to make them. Captain Jack didn’t say “savvy” enough for me. I was glad to see Jonathan Price as always and surprised that we didn’t see Orlando Bloom’s chest, is that the first time that’s happened?
I was miffed about something though I was totally lied to about Jeffery Rush’s appearance. They totally pulled a Few Good Men with that and hell; even that movie had Nicholson in it for a longer period of time.
I was amused by the cages used in the island scene. They were pretty darn strong. My current theory is that they were based on Bucky Balls.
I giggled quietly every time Davy Jones was on screen. I kept wondering why Cthulhu was on his head.
It’s nice that someone else noticed that Captain Jack Sparrow was rather swishy.
My sweet pea now wants an undead monkey. I offered him a jar of dirt instead.
All in all, I was ok with the entire movie, even the ending and I’m one to get ticked off with the whole, unfinished until next time. It was a fun, fantastic ride, a great adventure.
When he, Will, and Jack were fighting, Norrington reached the boat and saw dirt on the bottom of it beside the jar and realized it had been opened it and, I assume, tucked it in his shirt or jacket and then “distracted” Jones’ crew by running away.
A player would make a bid of say 5 5’s the next person would have a choice. If he thought there weren’t 5 5’s, he’d call the previous person a liar. Then dice would be revealed . if there were 5 5’s or more, the accuser would lose that round, if there weren’t, the liar would. If the person didn’t want to call the other person a liar, he’d have to increase the bid to either 5 6’s, or 6 or above of some other number.
The kraken. Very impressive, looked weighty and tentacle-y and suckery.
The three-way swordfight. So well-executed that I almost didn’t wonder why they put a water-wheel in a place with no water.
Johnny Depp’s performance, especially in the part where he talks to the cannibals.
I did not like:
The obsessive need to repeat every joke from the first movie. It’s inherently self-defeating to have later movies in a series cannibalizing (ahem) the earlier one.
The fact that they never let the music run for very long.
The repeated use of the “character looks forward and doesn’t notice the enormous monster approaching from behind” cliche. I am so tired of that.
Well I saw it today, and though I wasn’t a big fan of the first movie I enjoyed this one a bit more. Davy Jones’ crew and Kraken made much better villains than the (IMO) overly silly zombies from the first film. It definitely could have benefited from streamlining the plot. And so many locations! Those pirate ships most sail at the speed of light, the way they travel from one uncharted island to another in about ten seconds.
I just saw it today, and count me among those who did not like it. I wouldn’t say that it sucked, but it sure came close at times. It was just too long (like WhyNot, I was checking my watch), with a great deal of unnecessary garbage and a bit of a muddled plot. My 11 year old has been looking forward to this with great anticipation since he first got word of the sequel, and he was very disappointed.
I had the opposite reactions - Davy Jones and his crew looked ridiculous and made me want to laugh rather than be frightened. (Who’s going to be afraid of Dr. Zoidberg the pirate?) As to the Kraken - how many times do we have to see it do its thing? By its last appearance, we’ve seen it so much that there’s no surprise or awe left.
And for all the extraneous laying out of background plot (e.g. Elizabeth’s father and all that stuff) or time spent with the cannibals, there was hardly any indication of where people were or where they were going. For the most egregious example of that: Can anyone explain why the gang would have headed for the voodoo woman’s place at the end? She was someone that Jack went to for specific help - why would any of them go there to mope? Why would they go there particularly when they knew that Norrington wanted to get the contents of the chest to regain his standing. Wouldn’t they try to head him off or keep the new bad guy from getting control of the seas?But I think the worst part of all was: Elizabeth’s behavior towards Jack. The sexual tension felt completely forced, and her handcuffing him to the ship and to his presumed doom is not very likable for a protagonist. He’s just fulfilled her prediction to be a good man at the moment he is tested, and she turns around and tongue wrestles him and then sacrifices him to die. Aren’t we supposed to like her? How can her character recover from that?
I saw this as a direct fulfillment of:Jack’s earlier prediction that she would eventually adopt a more piratical mode of existence. Ironically, when Jack fulfils her prediction that he would turn over a new leaf, she immediately fulfils his prediction about her, by seducing and betraying him.Honestly, what’s not to like about this film? It has cannibals, pirates, giant squid, hellspawn, voodoo, Jonathan Pryce, and an undead monkey. It may be fair to say that it doesn’t quite measure up to the sheer energy of the first movie. On the other hand, I’m inclined to cut the film a lot of slack, considering that this is a sequel to a movie based on an amusement park ride, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. When I first heard about the original movie, I fully expected it to blow Uwe Boll-sized chunks; instead, it was a downright rollicking swashbuckler flick. If this one doesn’t totally measure up to that standard, well… it’s still a hugely entertaining adventure film that stands head and shoulders above most other summer films.
Plus, the cliffhanger is one of the most audacious setups that I can recall. (During a rather lackluster review of the film, my local paper casually gave away the final scene-- you suck, Tampa Tribune movie reviewer Bob Ross!)
I have only two real complaints about the film. Firstly, I thought everyone knew that the captain of the Flying Dutchman is named Vanderdecken, not Davy Jones! What the hell kind of a Dutch name is “Jones?” This seems like a peculiarly unnecessary tweak to well-established seagoing lore. But who knows, maybe the Vanderdecken heirs threatened to sue or something.
Infinitely more distressing is the conspicuous absence of actress Zoe Saldana as Jack Sparrow’s erstwhile pirate belle Anamaria. Based on the dialogue, one can only conclude that she was eaten. A damn shame, really.
Argh! I forgot about that! I was so frustrated that there was nothing whatsoever about her character even mentioned in this movie, especially when there was such a close eye paid to continuity in so many other aspects. She didn’t even get an “Anamaria? Oh, she retired to Gibraltar with a flock of cabana boys!” exposit send-off!
She was one of my favorite characters from the first movie, and a sequel with an island of ethnic cannibals and a 99% male cast needs all the positive racial and gender flags it can get. Where did she go?
Now Zoidberg’s the popular one! (:smack: I can’t believe I didn’t think of him during the movie!)
You think? They didn’t even go the Han Solo route of leaving him dead until the end of the movie. They did end it on a dramatic note and they’ve set up some nice stuff for the third movie - which I still expect to be cool.
That was weird. Based on Nighy’s accent, I concluded Jones was a Welsh squid with a Dutch ship. And even if that’s not true to the original story, it’s imaginative.
I saw it yesterday afternoon, and didn’t like it, either. It had the potential to be a great movie - if they had stuck with one storyline (the present one, not the set up for the next movie), and included some sort of conclusion. All that action and no resolution after all that time was just frustrating. They could have left the set-up for next time with Barbosa & Jack, and still managed to wrap up the threads with Bootstrap, the Gov, and the East India Company.
I agree with those who said it was just a long commercial. Even though it was fun, and funny, it was about 45 minutes more than I could stand. I wish I hadn’t bothered – I would’ve prefered to see it at home.
On another note – I had heard that Disney updated the PotC rides to include Barbosa and Jack, and that nagged at me a little through the film. During the 3-way sword fight, before they end up on the waterwheel, that set looked exactly like the frame of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse at Disney. How many kids are still in to Swiss Family Robinson? Is it wrong to suspect more marketing ploys?
The credits say yes, and in Dominica, but mostly the Bahamas. *Do * stay until the end of the credits - they show what happens to a minor but memorable character.
So-so experience - too much of the story advanced by semi-garbled dialogue, too confused and contrived, too many huge holes. Maybe the 3rd flick, of which this was simply a setup, will close them.
Great CGI, especially Davy Jones’ face. No wonder he doesn’t want to join any more Monkees’ reunions.
The 3-way standoff and swordfight was a pure ripoff of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, of course.
Question: Why did Davy Jones make the deal with Sparrow and give him those 13 years as the Black Pearl’s captain? Davy already had control of him (unless I only thought I heard the part about Jack being dead or dying when he was picked up), so what did Davy get out of the deal?
Saw it. Liked it. They definitely pulled a Back to the Future 2 or Empire Strikes Back with it though.
Hentor,Terrifel explained the bit with Elizabeth very well. It’s interesting that she’s now the one in need of redemption instead of Jack. I’m guessing at some point Will is going to call her on it too.
As others mentioned, there’s a nice little Easter Egg for staying until the end of the credits.
You’re NOT allowed to like it. It goes against Ninja Law. If you end up liking the film, you’ll lose your Ninja credentials - and have to turn in your sword and slippers.
(The unprofessional & rather funny review, (linked above), was played on NPR this past Friday, is worth watching on Quicktime).
Ask A Ninja’s review, which is the pasting together of a bunch of snarky sentences, basically says:[ul][]A horrible movie inspired by old-school, robot, Chucky Cheese style pirates[]Unstructured story - Five screenplays blasted out of a cannon and pasted back together[]Everbody was a pirate: Fish pirates, half dead & full dead pirates, etc.[]Too many plot lines: Dogs, ships, even the ocean & single body parts; got their own plot lines[]A never-ending story, with too many loose ends[]Bad casting: If you don’t know who Keira Knightley is; She’s a more masculine version of Orlando Bloom[]This film needed alot more Gore and alot less Verbinski - Which is a Russian term for ‘bad dialogue’[]This film should’ve had Ninjas: They would’ve killed the Cracken (and not looked like Keith Richard’s in eye make-up doing it)[*]Save your money. Dress up like a clown, jump into a giant aquarium & sing Hit Me With Your Best Shot backwards. It would be alot more entertaining[/ul]
Can somebody please spoil the scene at the end of the credits for me? I would have been glad to stay, but the group I went with was hot to trot.
Overall, I found it a very meh experience. I’m a big fan of the first, but as others have said, this one lacked the same fun and charisma. For starters, I found it unnecessarily grim, especially the opening scene with the birds plucking eyes out. I spent a lot of energy trying to make sense of the various story lines (i.e. who wants what, and why) and therefore couldn’t really immerse myself in the spirit of the movie. I found the scenes with the Kracken rather uninteresting - they dragged on too long and weren’t fun to watch in the first place. Give me cannon fire any day!
That said, there were some redeeming qualities. The comic pirate duo left over from Barbosa’s crew was spot on, and I loved Jack’s treatment of the undead monkey. I’m thrilled Barbosa’s gonna be back for PotC 3 - he’s a much more interesting character than Davy Jones, in my opinion.
Twinkie, I was at Disneyland a few months ago, and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse had been converted to a Tarzan theme. However, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if they changed it up again, since Pirates is a more popular film than Tarzan ever was.
