So I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

[N3B]

Not bad/10.

The Pirates movies are nice, because they have good action, good drama, and subtle humor that all blend very well together. Not to mention, Cap'n Jack Sparrow is a briliant character.

The first was excellent because it had a near-perfect balance of the above whilst keeping it concise and enjoyable.

The second I didn't like as much because it felt kind of like a "You liked the first one, so you will like this one." Plus, it didn't feel like a whole lot happened in it, but I haven't seen it since it came out, so my memory could be wrong. At any rate, it didn't have the same quaint quality of the first one.

The third I felt just went way over the top as far as including so much stuff at the last minute (figuratively speaking). Watching all of the treachery as each faction played each other was pretty cool; seeing it all come together at the end. And, Jack's character was even more amusing in this one than in the first one. Definitely got my money's worth ($7 for a 3 hour film).

[Notesurfer]

Three hours is too long for a movie, especially when at least 45 minutes of that is a layer cake of epic LOTR battle scenes slathered with superfluous special effects. The plot was as poor as anything, which I think one can attribute to this entirely nonfictional conversation:

Writer 1: Lets do a storyline about rescuing Jack from the world beyond the edge!

Writer 2: . . . okay done, now what?

Writer 1: Well, we're kind of screwed now, our movie is only 15 minutes long.

Writer 3: I've got it, we'll throw in all kinds of ridiculous plot twists and unnecessary battles to make our movie more sensational - it'll be great!


I was pissed.

EDIT: That's not to say I didn't like the first one - it was the sequels that made me vomit continuously. The end of the second movie was totally ruined by that ridiculous lead-in to the third movie - it felt like a really bad ripoff of an episode of Lost.

[N3B]

I think the plot was more of "Let's finish Jack's ambitions to captain the Flying Duchess, Will's ambitions to save his father, and how all the other characters get mixed up with that." The rescuing Jack from the netherworld just seemed like a gimmick to me, not so much centric to the plot.

It's kind of like how Empire Strikes back ends with Luke finding out that Vader's his father and Han getting taken by Boba Fett to Tatooine. In Return of the Jedi, they go to rescue Han, but that's not centric to the bigger plot of Luke trying to save his father and the Rebellion trying to stop the Empire. In each case, it seemed more like a cliffhanger to tie the two movies together, only in Pirates, it seems they spent way too much time on that.

Ultimately, I think they could've fit the entirety of the two movies into one 3-hour movie, instead of two 2.5-3 hour movies. Not a whole lot really happened in them -- they just spent a lot of time drawing things out and adding a bunch of little stuff that didn't contribute much to the plot.

But, in the end it amused me, so I'm content (wasn't content with the second one).