Sunday, May 29, 2011

Not as strange a tide as the last one...


So, I was trying to write this review for a while, but the blogger page kept giving me the dreaded '404' error...I guess I'm outdated.  Nothing new there.  Okay, so everyone loves the first one, likes the second one and finds the 3rd one absurd.  I...like the first one...thought the second one was alright...and thought the 3rd one was too long and sort of incomprehensible.  So, not the biggest Pirates fan, though I always give them a chance. 

This one is one of the best in the series if not the best in the series.  I know a lot of people are saying "it's more of the same like 3", but don't believe it.  There's no women growing to enormous size and then turning into crabs, there's no flipping the boat to survive, there's none of that.  Thankfully, there is also no Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley.  Watching this film, I came to realize how much both characters SUCKED in the first 3 films.  They did, Bloom was a whiny little wimp and Knightley pouted and did stupid things.  This one is all about Jack Sparrow (well, almost all...more on that later) and that's how it should be.  Depp is clearly the best actor in this series and his character is obviously the most interesting.  In this one I actually liked him...I didn't like in the first three.  He's supposed to be a hero, but he's a scoundrel?  Why would they go to World's End to save his weaselly ass? The focus should be on him, not some gawd-awful love affair that is poorly written.  This movie, the focus is on him, which is a plus.

Not to say the other people in this movie weren't good, as well.  Geoffrey Rush is solid as usual as Barbossa, he's the best thing in the entire series next to Depp.  Penelope Cruz is a lot sexier and a lot more credible as a female lead than Knightley was.  Ian McShane is great as Blackbeard, I mean, he's just really good, he stands out in every scene and unlike some characters in this series, he's actually a menace, it isn't all for show.  Oh and for those who like creatures, there's zombies and the mermaids kind of are like vampires, so there you go.

The action...well I could see it.  There is quite a bit too, especially near the start.  There is a lull in the middle but luckily, the characters are (for the most part) interesting enough to keep the story moving, though the movie is still far too long.  I don't know why they think these movies have to be 2+ hours, there isn't enough story to really justify the length.  It could have been trimmed by 20 minutes, no problem.  One thing they could have done is trimmed the romantic subplot between the religious guy and the mermaid.  It was pointless and once again, just poorly written.  The Pirates writers cannot write romance, period.  They should just stick their strength which is writing swashbuckling action and (somewhat lame) jokes. 

Anyhow, there's my review of Pirates.  I enjoyed it probably the most I'll enjoy any of the movies in the series. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

- Stephenstein

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