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I've finally seen Dead Man's Chest!
Do bear in mind that I've read none of my dear flist's detailed reviews prior to seeing this movie. All I knew was that half of it raved that it was wonderful, and the other, well, wasn't quite so enthusiastic.
I can see both sides of the argument.
Take Jack, for instance. On the one hand, he was so very much Jack. On the other hand, he was so. Very much. Jack. Almost a parody of himself, at times.
Take the Jack/Elizabeth. They actually went there! Instead of simply leaving it be UST. On the other hand, it was handled with such little finesse.
Much as the previous Pirates movie surprised me by not making me realise that I was watching a Disney movie, this one was a heavy show of "look at my FX! Look at my man-eating savages! Look at our video game! Look at the spinning wheel and how well our heroes swordfight on top of it!" Etc, etc.
Where last time, the movie and the characters managed to be incredibly funny, they were also always believable. They were real, they made sense, they were begging for us to explore their depths in fics. In this one? Each character, at one point or another, seemed to be trying too much. Even Norrington. Which I'm sort of rather angry at the writers about.
Where last time, Barbossa bloody scared me, Davy Jones left me rather... unscared. Maybe it was the fact that he looked so unhuman, whereas even skeleton-like Geoffrey's voice was enough to imbue Barbossa with a definite sense of humanity. Which made him all the more frightening. (Imagine how hard I not that inwardly squeed when Witch!Gal mentioned a captain that knew those waters, and his boots clanked on the stairs!)
There was a lack of a sense of togetherness to this movie, I feel, compared to last time's script, which was so tight and beautiful and perfect. Okay, so perhaps I expected too much but the first movie was just so very amazing in a number of ways. I would've loved to write that script myself. It's a dream script. Anyway! The point is, this one? Not so much. That said, it's only a lead-in for the third movie, so this would explain that, I suppose. Still, it left me rather unsatisfied.
There were good things, though.
Norrington! His reintroductory scene, up to him being thrown in with the pigs (great tie-in with Gibbs, who used to be a man of the navy, too, although a tar, wasn't he?), got my throat so tight. That Commodore Norrington would have come to this. The fact that he turned out to be a double-crossing bastard only out to restore his previous life? Redemption, as he puts it. Amazing.
However, I'm really doubtless of the whole "unfortunately for you, Mr. Turner, he is right," and then fighting Will thing, seriously. That was very unlike him. Because he is the Lindsey to Jack's Angel, and isn't that such a weird parallel to draw, but it stands. Let me explain. Lindsey is to Angel, what? An opposing force that grew obsessed with him (possibly on more levels than just the one), and is on occasion not exactly working against Angel. Which is exactly what James is to Jack: an opposing force, nobody will challenge that, that grew obsessed with him (chasing after him into that hurricane!), and he did let Jack go that one day. Jack cost him quite as much as Angel cost Lindsey: not a limb, granted, but his life and his whole crew. (I refuse to believe that Murtogg, Mullroy, Groves or Gillette were on that ship. Groves was transferred after the events that happened in my fic Flight of Fancy (which the movie did not refute! Yay!), Gillette is captaining his own ship by now, and Murtogg and Mullroy... are just not dead, damnit.) And back to my turning-away-from-Jack-with-the-key-to-fight-Will point: what the hell? It would be like Lindsey turning away from fighting Angel to fight Cordelia instead. Seriously. (I can't believe I just compared all of those characters. Wrong on so many levels.)
Witch!Gal. Naomie Harris, as wonderful as ever. Like Jack, she needs only wash her teeth and I'll be all over her. I loved the accent she took, and her mannerisms, everything. (Plus she brought me back Geoffrey, so...)
Stellan! The Stellan scenes were lovely, we can see who Will gets it from. But he was so eager, and just... just Stellan. It made up for Will being so oath-swearing over freeing him. Seriously. Still, there was something lacking in the writing of those scenes, I don't know what. But Stellan made up for it.
Geoffrey! He was there for point three seconds (not counting the cameo by his boots), but he alone makes me long for the next movie. And hope against hope that it'll be better than this one. His voice, boys and girls, his voice. And the apple!
Which makes me think, the references to the previous movie – no doubt about it, they were writing a sequel, and did not forget the source material. It was, let's face it, too much at times. They were trying to win the audience over too much, I think, is what the problem was.
The swordfights, when not blown over the top (on top of a rolling watermill anyone?), were great. I don't know squat about swordfights, but they got me interested, and okay, yeah, the music helped, because the score was as great as ever.
In the end, there were lots of little and not so little things that I liked. But the movie was not as well-written as the previous one by miles, and it felt much emptier. Like there was no real driving force behind it, which is odd because, when I think about it, it follows pretty much the same pattern, and driving forces, as the first one.
Ack. I don't know. I liked things about it, but I didn't like it. I need to see it times and times again, now. To ascertain what I do think about it, and why. This is too fresh, too raw. And I loved the first one too well.
I'll be signing up to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sarkastic's Norrington picspam now, without a moment's delay, yay! So much to write about considering dear Norri. And I'll be looking forward to the next movie, if only for Norri and Barbossa.
And finding out whether Joey and I were right in oursnickering assumption of what kind of mark Jack left on Lord Beckett. I've turned her into a proper slash whore, I'm so proud.
In other, very quick news: Berlin's great! Despite the fact that they make a ten-minute break at the most inopportune moment in the middle of movies, because on the other hand? They show Dead Man's Chest a week before France, and they show it without subtitles! There has been museuming and zooing going on. It's pretty hot. Joey is going trigger-happy with her new reflex digital camera. And I'm getting to sleep on a more time-zone-appropriate sleeping schedule, which is odd. And that's about it, folks.
I can see both sides of the argument.
Take Jack, for instance. On the one hand, he was so very much Jack. On the other hand, he was so. Very much. Jack. Almost a parody of himself, at times.
Take the Jack/Elizabeth. They actually went there! Instead of simply leaving it be UST. On the other hand, it was handled with such little finesse.
Much as the previous Pirates movie surprised me by not making me realise that I was watching a Disney movie, this one was a heavy show of "look at my FX! Look at my man-eating savages! Look at our video game! Look at the spinning wheel and how well our heroes swordfight on top of it!" Etc, etc.
Where last time, the movie and the characters managed to be incredibly funny, they were also always believable. They were real, they made sense, they were begging for us to explore their depths in fics. In this one? Each character, at one point or another, seemed to be trying too much. Even Norrington. Which I'm sort of rather angry at the writers about.
Where last time, Barbossa bloody scared me, Davy Jones left me rather... unscared. Maybe it was the fact that he looked so unhuman, whereas even skeleton-like Geoffrey's voice was enough to imbue Barbossa with a definite sense of humanity. Which made him all the more frightening. (Imagine how hard I not that inwardly squeed when Witch!Gal mentioned a captain that knew those waters, and his boots clanked on the stairs!)
There was a lack of a sense of togetherness to this movie, I feel, compared to last time's script, which was so tight and beautiful and perfect. Okay, so perhaps I expected too much but the first movie was just so very amazing in a number of ways. I would've loved to write that script myself. It's a dream script. Anyway! The point is, this one? Not so much. That said, it's only a lead-in for the third movie, so this would explain that, I suppose. Still, it left me rather unsatisfied.
There were good things, though.
Norrington! His reintroductory scene, up to him being thrown in with the pigs (great tie-in with Gibbs, who used to be a man of the navy, too, although a tar, wasn't he?), got my throat so tight. That Commodore Norrington would have come to this. The fact that he turned out to be a double-crossing bastard only out to restore his previous life? Redemption, as he puts it. Amazing.
However, I'm really doubtless of the whole "unfortunately for you, Mr. Turner, he is right," and then fighting Will thing, seriously. That was very unlike him. Because he is the Lindsey to Jack's Angel, and isn't that such a weird parallel to draw, but it stands. Let me explain. Lindsey is to Angel, what? An opposing force that grew obsessed with him (possibly on more levels than just the one), and is on occasion not exactly working against Angel. Which is exactly what James is to Jack: an opposing force, nobody will challenge that, that grew obsessed with him (chasing after him into that hurricane!), and he did let Jack go that one day. Jack cost him quite as much as Angel cost Lindsey: not a limb, granted, but his life and his whole crew. (I refuse to believe that Murtogg, Mullroy, Groves or Gillette were on that ship. Groves was transferred after the events that happened in my fic Flight of Fancy (which the movie did not refute! Yay!), Gillette is captaining his own ship by now, and Murtogg and Mullroy... are just not dead, damnit.) And back to my turning-away-from-Jack-with-the-key-to-fight-Will point: what the hell? It would be like Lindsey turning away from fighting Angel to fight Cordelia instead. Seriously. (I can't believe I just compared all of those characters. Wrong on so many levels.)
Witch!Gal. Naomie Harris, as wonderful as ever. Like Jack, she needs only wash her teeth and I'll be all over her. I loved the accent she took, and her mannerisms, everything. (Plus she brought me back Geoffrey, so...)
Stellan! The Stellan scenes were lovely, we can see who Will gets it from. But he was so eager, and just... just Stellan. It made up for Will being so oath-swearing over freeing him. Seriously. Still, there was something lacking in the writing of those scenes, I don't know what. But Stellan made up for it.
Geoffrey! He was there for point three seconds (not counting the cameo by his boots), but he alone makes me long for the next movie. And hope against hope that it'll be better than this one. His voice, boys and girls, his voice. And the apple!
Which makes me think, the references to the previous movie – no doubt about it, they were writing a sequel, and did not forget the source material. It was, let's face it, too much at times. They were trying to win the audience over too much, I think, is what the problem was.
The swordfights, when not blown over the top (on top of a rolling watermill anyone?), were great. I don't know squat about swordfights, but they got me interested, and okay, yeah, the music helped, because the score was as great as ever.
In the end, there were lots of little and not so little things that I liked. But the movie was not as well-written as the previous one by miles, and it felt much emptier. Like there was no real driving force behind it, which is odd because, when I think about it, it follows pretty much the same pattern, and driving forces, as the first one.
Ack. I don't know. I liked things about it, but I didn't like it. I need to see it times and times again, now. To ascertain what I do think about it, and why. This is too fresh, too raw. And I loved the first one too well.
I'll be signing up to
sarkastic's Norrington picspam now, without a moment's delay, yay! So much to write about considering dear Norri. And I'll be looking forward to the next movie, if only for Norri and Barbossa.And finding out whether Joey and I were right in our
In other, very quick news: Berlin's great! Despite the fact that they make a ten-minute break at the most inopportune moment in the middle of movies, because on the other hand? They show Dead Man's Chest a week before France, and they show it without subtitles! There has been museuming and zooing going on. It's pretty hot. Joey is going trigger-happy with her new reflex digital camera. And I'm getting to sleep on a more time-zone-appropriate sleeping schedule, which is odd. And that's about it, folks.