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Movies 'n stuff
Jeremy and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End today.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into it - most of the reactions I'd seen were fairly positive, so I suppose I was cautiously optimistic. And I was pleasantly surprised.
AWE was definitely better than DMC; I'll have to see it a couple more times before I decide whether I like it better than the original. I suspect not, but I thought it was very good all the same.
The good? Tia Dalma. Surprisingly, Will. The movie was (speaking relatively) fairly dark and complex (or I might have just been confused; like I said, I'll definitely have to see it again before I know what I really thought of it). There was a lot of double-crossing, so much so that it did actually get a little confusing, but I think I actually liked that.
And this pretty much goes against everything I ever thought I'd say, but ... Orlando Bloom was seriously hot. I have no idea. Did he suddenly grow up? Maybe my tastes are shifting again. Whatever the reason, I kinda like Orlando Bloom now, and I like his character, which I didn't in the first two films.
The bad? Norrington's death. The Calypso storyline. Strangely, for a movie clocking in at just under three hours, it felt too short - the ending was definitely rushed. A lot of things that could have been expanded on weren't, and some of the resolutions felt anticlimactic.
I was expecting a lot more from the Calypso storyline, but it seemed to just ... not go anywhere. They freed her, and then ... nothing. She buggered off (after giving them all crabs, hee!). Um, okay, then.
Norrington's death sucked, and I say that as a fangirl and a discerning viewer both. As a fan of Jack Davenport and of Norrington, I just didn't want him to die. But I would have been okay with it if it had actually meant anything, if it had been the redemptive, inevitable death I think it was supposed to be. Instead, it seemed like a stupid plot point that could easily have been avoided by the character's actions (climb the fucking rope, already!); he was too important in the first two films to have been killed so dismissively, and wasn't given enough screen time in the third for it to have the emotional resonance it should have had. And, come on, Bootstrap? Jack, Barbossa, Beckett - hell, even Elizabeth; just have someone I actually care about kill him, for a reason that actually matters. That's all I would have wanted.
Thematically, though, the film worked. The opening scene was perfectly chilling (I was terribly afraid someone was going to come in and save the day when I saw the boy about to be hanged, and I'm so glad - yes, I'm a terrible person - they didn't.) The ending actually made me cry, a little (okay, so that's no huge feat; pretty much everything makes me cry. But still). And did I mention Orlando Bloom was actually hot? I'm still floored by that, and now I have all these thoughts in my head that really shouldn't be there.
We also got to see a lot of trailers, which is one of my favourite things about seeing a movie at the cinema. Die Hard 4.0 is going to fucking rock; Transformers actually looks like something I want to see. And we got to see the OOTP trailer, which got me more excited about the film release than I have been so far; I'm still not sure I want to go see it on opening day, but we'll see.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into it - most of the reactions I'd seen were fairly positive, so I suppose I was cautiously optimistic. And I was pleasantly surprised.
AWE was definitely better than DMC; I'll have to see it a couple more times before I decide whether I like it better than the original. I suspect not, but I thought it was very good all the same.
The good? Tia Dalma. Surprisingly, Will. The movie was (speaking relatively) fairly dark and complex (or I might have just been confused; like I said, I'll definitely have to see it again before I know what I really thought of it). There was a lot of double-crossing, so much so that it did actually get a little confusing, but I think I actually liked that.
And this pretty much goes against everything I ever thought I'd say, but ... Orlando Bloom was seriously hot. I have no idea. Did he suddenly grow up? Maybe my tastes are shifting again. Whatever the reason, I kinda like Orlando Bloom now, and I like his character, which I didn't in the first two films.
The bad? Norrington's death. The Calypso storyline. Strangely, for a movie clocking in at just under three hours, it felt too short - the ending was definitely rushed. A lot of things that could have been expanded on weren't, and some of the resolutions felt anticlimactic.
I was expecting a lot more from the Calypso storyline, but it seemed to just ... not go anywhere. They freed her, and then ... nothing. She buggered off (after giving them all crabs, hee!). Um, okay, then.
Norrington's death sucked, and I say that as a fangirl and a discerning viewer both. As a fan of Jack Davenport and of Norrington, I just didn't want him to die. But I would have been okay with it if it had actually meant anything, if it had been the redemptive, inevitable death I think it was supposed to be. Instead, it seemed like a stupid plot point that could easily have been avoided by the character's actions (climb the fucking rope, already!); he was too important in the first two films to have been killed so dismissively, and wasn't given enough screen time in the third for it to have the emotional resonance it should have had. And, come on, Bootstrap? Jack, Barbossa, Beckett - hell, even Elizabeth; just have someone I actually care about kill him, for a reason that actually matters. That's all I would have wanted.
Thematically, though, the film worked. The opening scene was perfectly chilling (I was terribly afraid someone was going to come in and save the day when I saw the boy about to be hanged, and I'm so glad - yes, I'm a terrible person - they didn't.) The ending actually made me cry, a little (okay, so that's no huge feat; pretty much everything makes me cry. But still). And did I mention Orlando Bloom was actually hot? I'm still floored by that, and now I have all these thoughts in my head that really shouldn't be there.
We also got to see a lot of trailers, which is one of my favourite things about seeing a movie at the cinema. Die Hard 4.0 is going to fucking rock; Transformers actually looks like something I want to see. And we got to see the OOTP trailer, which got me more excited about the film release than I have been so far; I'm still not sure I want to go see it on opening day, but we'll see.
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