More is Less
by Flick Chick Vique
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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End pillages 3 & 1/2 Red Vines |
When we last left our intrepid and certainly questionable heroes, the terrifying ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman was under the control of the evil-though impeccably groomed Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and the tentacle faced atrocity, Davy Jones.
Doomed lovers, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley) have enlisted the help of ‘dead man walking’ Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) to save Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who is trapped in Davy Jones’ locker. The latest installment of this pirate trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World’s End, picks up the story right were it was left off.
When that movie came out, I was simply beside myself. I couldn’t imagine how they could make part two better than part one but indeed they did. While some thought part one was better, I staunchly defended two by saying more is more. There’s more live action, more creepy characters, more laughs, more swashing, more buckling, just MORE!
Well, I can’t tell you how sad it makes me to report that the third part of the trilogy was more than a little disappointing for yours truly. As you know by now, I’m not one for spoilers so I won’t spoil this film for you, but here are my complaints in order.
First, not enough Depp! Any way you look at it, he’s the star. He does not appear until about 45 minutes into the movie. Secondly, when he finally does make his appearance, it’s as if the director tried to make up for lost time. What ensues is a bizarre sequence that is all Jack Sparrow. It is too long and not nearly funny enough.
My next complaint is there are no new ‘creatures’. No skeletal ghosts, no mighty Kraken. While my favorite character from part two, Davy Jones gets a lot of great screen time; the only new character is of human origin. Chow Yun Fat plays the Chinese Captain Sao Feng. He bears a striking resemblance to the sinister Ming from the Flash Gordon series and is properly menacing but still he’s a human, not some creepy critter from the deep. I will say I enjoyed the scenes involving him and his den of iniquity in Singapore. It was the kind of art direction and set intricacy I grew accustomed to in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
But my biggest complaint is the length: a bladder busting 168 minutes!!! And it didn’t have to be! Too much time is wasted on second bananas and Sparrow hallucinations that just aren’t worth sitting in a theatre for nearly 3 hours! Forget the time you’ll invest in showing up early to snatch a seat!
I have stated before how wonderful every supporting and bit player is and I stand by that. But to waste precious time giving shipmates Pintel (Lee Arenberg) and Ragetti (Macenzie Crook) punch line after punch line makes no sense. We see less and less of them as the film progresses but I suspect that they survived the cutting room floor simply because they were given so many funny lines. To save time by cutting them would have significantly cut down on the precious few laughs. I’m not knocking them, they are great. But I didn’t go to the movie to see Arenberg and Crook. I went to see Depp, Rush, Keith Richards and great special effects. By the way, by the time Richards made his appearance I was so numb I had completely forgotten he was in the flick!
But speaking of Rush, his characterization of Barbosa is like a lighthouse beacon on dark seas. He is funny and and just plain fun to have around. We also get treated to lots of Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones. How he is able to emote under 2 tons of rubber prosthetics is totally beyond me! But emote he does. In one particular scene he goes from gentle tears to trembling rage, without the camera ever leaving his face. He is mesmerizing!
Everyone knew that the Lord of the Rings trilogy deserved tons of awards, yet they didn’t pull in the hardware till part three. I was thinking the same would happen with Pirates, especially for Johnny Depp. He has breathed life into a character that will forever be imitated and admired. But while the Lord of the Rings just got better with each installment, this last pirate adventure simply stalls. Even the film’s great battle at sea wasn’t enough to wow me. In fact it barely kept me awake.
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Watch a new featurette (“The Pirate Lords”) and meet the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the earth who band together to overthrow the East India Trading Company!
Quicktime | Windows Media
- Wanna see what you look like as a pirate? Then check out the official PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/atworldsend! Upload a photo and watch yourself be “piratized”!
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