Pirates of the Caribbean: At Girl's Pen

Hey guys-

Here's the moment you've all been waiting for ... (well, at least some of you)...
[complete photo sources]

PIRATES of the CARIBBEAN: AT WORLDS END: (No spoilers!)



If you're too lazy to read the whole review, just listen to this one thing: STAY through the credits!! I ALWAYS sit through the credits to every movie I watch, but there were about four people left with me in the theatre to witness a BONUS, VERY IMPORTANT mini-scene!! You'll definitely enjoy it... and it'll make you feel a little better about the ending!!



As for the movie IN GENERAL? This third installment is DARKER AND more violent than the last two, so if you're a kid under the age of 13, your parents definitely need to be the ones you watch it with! The opening scene was extremely sad/touching, but also morbid in a way. The sword fights were a lot more graphic; many times, you see people being stabbed through the heart/chest, with the swords coming out through the back. There is definitely a lot more blood, and like the last movie, you see Davey Jones' heart, but this time, it's a lot more gruesome (especially when seeing what happens to it throughout the plot).



The plot? I was EXTREMELY confused throughout the entire movie. I suggest that you watch the first AND second movies again to refresh your memory... then RE-WATCH the third movie a second time... because the plot intertwines a lot with the second, and they assume that you already know every single last detail and don't leave any room for rehashing the past. Yes, this may be obvious to you that this is definitely just the ending to the second movie, but there was so much more to it than just being a "third installment". At the beginning of this movie, you can tell that time had elapsed, but you are unsure as to how much time, or what has happened during that time. Later on in the movie, there is SO much dialogue, and everyone has different accents, that it kind of makes it hard to understand what they're saying. The characters also switch sides MANY times, and there are SO many deals/bargains/stabbing-in-the-back-moments, that you're unsure as to who has a deal with who, and who is on what side at what time. Overall, the plot was just EXTREMELY confusing as a whole. You can tell that the actors and the director know what's going on, but it's like one of those times when you're telling a funny story to your friend, but they just don't get it because you're assuming they were there with you and can fill in all the blanks. Moreover, there were also a few parts that were pretty silly and uneccesary, and made it seem like they were added for comic relief... but the movie was so intense that those parts just acted like annoying bumps in the plot.



The acting? Orlando Bloom was freakishly HOT, and his acting was so intense that you could almost feel his struggles/pain as your own. Keira Knightley was Keira... beautiful, intense, and dramatic, as always! I actually didn't see her as Keira at all... she was just a propper, elegant girl, turned bad @ss pirate! The chemistry between Orlando and Keira was also VERY tense and VERY there. As for Johnny Depp... who DOESN'T love Mr. Flamboyant Jack Sparrow?? Johnny was hilarious, loopy, and very much in his own world... which made it PERFECT for this movie. Also, you could feel a real hatred/tension between Johnny and Orlando's characters, making the plot all the more believable. The only PROBLEM I had with the acting was with CHOW YUN FAT. I grew up watching him in Hong Kong action movies, which he was awesome in because that's his thing: speaking cantonese and kicking butt. But in this movie, he had barely ANY action what-so-ever (which is a complete waste of his talent, if you ask me), and he spoke ENGLISH. There is nothing wrong with having him speak English... except it doesn't sound like an authentic broken English that you would hear when a real Singaporean Pirate King is trying to communicate... it sounded like a thickly accented TRAINED English that let you know that he was ACTING... making his character seem less authentic.



The movie FILM itself? The computer graphics were absolutely AMAZING!! Everything down to the very last raindrop was very impressive- you can tell they put not only A LOT of effort, but also a ton of PASSION into their work. Everything on screen made me feel like I was a pirate and part of the action... it really helped with the movie-going experience. If it weren't almost three hours long, I think I'd sit through it again JUST to see the graphics one more time on the big screen. Nothing looked cheesy; everything looked authenitc and very "piratey"... the people at ILM and Disney REALLY got it right for this movie.



THE MUSIC: One other thing I really enjoyed about this movie was THE SOUNDTRACK! It was SPECTACULAR... especially the very first song, which opened the movie. Very creepy, very touching, very powerful. (You can hear it in the youtube clip above!)



OVERALL? I give this movie a 3 out of 5. The only thing that didn't make it a 2 out of 5 is that the graphics and the character development were awesome... but the plot definitely had MAJOR FLAWS. Oh yeah, and the only comic relief came from two dirty pirates and A (very cute) DEMON MONKEY... now what does that tell you?