Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me: The Pirates of the Caribbean

I wonder when they would have the 4th one come out. Maybe 2011? Although that'll be a packed summer with Captain America, Spider-Man IV, Avengers, etc.

 

It might just be me, but my first impression of Penelope Cruz's character is that she's channeling a bit of At World's End!Elizabeth Swann.

Nice pictures though. I sense that some classic Jack Sparrow escape methods will be featured in this film.

 

Glad to know I'm not the only one. 2 & 3 were an incoherent mess, and didn't even have good sword fighting. Illogical, irrational, and plain all-out stupid.
As for making a 4th... Maybe with the 5-year break, the writers have had enough time to come up with something decent. But as for 5th & 6th, only if there's a good story being told. Somehow it would have to be like the original SW trilogy: 4 would have to be good enough to stand alone in case it doesn't work, but have enough in it for the 5&6 continuation.

 

There's some definite classic Jack Sparrow moments in that trailer. It looks to be a lot of good fun, more in the spirit of the first film, I think, than the later two.

 

Well, I'll be waiting for the DVD on that. Looks like a funky attempt to combine CotBP with the National Treasure franchise.
And of course, Bruckheimer's name on it make it... 99.999999999% likely of being utter excrement.

 

I was concerned that this "return to the essence of the franchise" that I kept hearing meant that we were going to be treated with a film that was just as plotless and unoriginal as the first. But no, that's definitely not the case. This is going to be explosive. It's going to be hilarious. It's going to be profound. And it looks as if it's channeling all the originality and boldness that's made Pirates one of the most successful film franchies of all time. There's nothing not to love.

 

The third movie was better than the second, though neither come close to the first, but at least the sequels weren't as bad as say the Matrix sequels.

That was a great new trailer, glad to see the familiar faces (Jack, Barbossa, Gibbs), and looks like they've added quite a few new crazy characters (and yay, Jack's father is back). Funny to see Barbossa in that outfit, but looks like all the Jack Sparrow hilarity most of us know and love is there, without most of the angst of the last two films. Just hope its not outweighed by the romantic subplot. Oh well, at least without Will and Elizabeth anymore now there's more room for Jack, so that should work out well. I've heard rumors about a fifth and sixth, and just hope they don't follow the second and third's example of being one storyline (although I heard they were being filmed back to back again), assuming they can get Depp for that many more movies. I'd just prefer more crazy adventures of Jack Sparrow rather than some big plot. Here's hoping the fourth turns out good.

 

I think he says "You'd be much better if you just..." and then "...stay out of it".

 

Probably not the right place for this, but I wanted to give a huge thank you to whoever created this banner. And whoever put it up. It's awesome.

 

The sequels should be de-canonized, with all extant copies destroyed and all mention of their existence erased from history.

 

Saw the midnight premiere tonight. Worst movie experience of my life. Horrible screeching sound during the trailers. Enduring every person in the audience saying during the Green Lantern trailer, "Originally Green Lantern was black." Then they don't turn off the lights once the movie starts, left them on the whole movie. The screen wasn't right or the film wasn't so it cut off the entire bottom part of the screen so I couldn't see the words telling me the date and locations.

But the movie itself. I actually think it was pretty good. Reminds me of the Curse of the Black Pearl a lot, it didn't treat itself too seriously, it actually felt like it just wanted to have fun. In a lot of ways they did stuff better than in the Curse of the Black Pearl. They focused on Jack, Blackbeard, Barbossa, and Angelica almost entirely, which is good as that is where the good stuff is. The Missionary and Mermaid subplot was good. It reminded me of the Will Elizabeth stuff from Curse of the Black Pearl only done better, ie it was not a main or even an important part of the movie. However someone will have to explain to me what the heck she did to him at the end of the movie as I have no idea.

Blackbeard was mostly good with the exception we never saw why he was 'The pirate all pirate's fear' he never did anything more evil than what Barbossa did. He was talked up as the Darth Vader of pirates but he only kills one of his crew. I mean he seemed like how a real pirate captain would act, but not the greatest evil of the seas. Much preferred Davy Jones.

Penelope Cruz was a good foil for Jack. Their relationship really reminds me of the Indy/Marion relationship from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Fountain of Youth, I can't help but laugh when the Spanish reveal their real reasons for sending three warships to search for it.

I really liked the homage to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Blackbeard's fate.

I never thought they could make mermaids threatening, and even still just saying it out loud still sounded silly, and still does. That said they were pretty good at making them a threat.

The main thing I didn't like was the lack of exposition on almost anything. The zombies, why Ponce De Leon guards that map, how his ship got up there, how everything on the island got built.

They also really showed how they could have used a lot of characters from the previous movies to better use. Norrington would have been perfect on the British frigate, what a waste of a character. Those two bumbling British soldiers would have been nice too, as well as the bumbling pirates, but we never see any of them.

All in all I give it a 7/10.

 

Hm, if this is the direction they take after the first three pictures, its not bad at all. Partially recaptures the feeling of the first movie, with the focus mostly on Jack Sparrow, and he is brilliant in this one. Well, he's always been "savvy", but he is very, very smart throughout this movie (like how he escaped the British guards, and it was all planned out). The second movie was stupid, and the third recovered somewhat but not quite, but here Jack always had another trick up his sleeve.

Barbossa was great as always (and his awesome peg leg). Not to mention Mr. Gibbs, he's always reliable and honorable. Its sad not to see more returning minor characters, but I'm glad that Barbossa and Gibbs are both still doing fine. The plot is somewhat convoluted, and some more background might be appreciated but it did basically come down to a race for the Fountain and certain items required to use the Fountain.

Too bad the "romantic" couple of that missionary and the mermaid fell quite flat. I had read IGN's early review, and yeah, they're worse than Will and Elizabeth ever were. Not sure if him getting carried off was an ending or a potential loose thread for later. And yeah, the mermaids were quite threatening. After all the trailers, I expected the pirates to get slaughtered or just get entranced and slaughtered, so I was glad to see some of them were smart enough to put up a bit of a fight at least.

Cruz as Angelica was pretty good, with great chemistry between her and Jack. By the way, stay for after the credits, there's one last bit with her. Blackbeard was talked up a lot, but yeah, he didn't stack up to Davy Jones as a threat, although the acting was fine. Dangerous, but guess his magic powers are why other pirates feared him? Although no idea where he got those powers (and seems like Barbossa got the magic sword at least), at least Davy Jones and Callisto are explained like elemental forces of the sea.

I actually kind of like how it turned out with the Spanish. At first I feared a giant three-way fight between Barbossa's British, Blackbeard and the Spanish for the chalices and the Fountain (and it was already so dark I had a hard time following what was going on), but instead the Spanish just don't like the idea of the pagan Fountain, which I view as a refreshing change from the normal "everyone fighting for the item!". We had enough of that in Dead Man's Chest.

So, pretty good movie. I'd rank it far above the second, a little behind the third (for certain reasons), so my third favorite movie of the four. My only major complaint is that there weren't any ship battles. I know At World's End was still quite convoluted, but I loved that epic battle at the end between the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl. Alas, the poor Pearl, although things are looking up. I have a hard time following all the dialogue (maybe I'll watch it again, or just wait for the Blu-ray and subtitles), but Jack was pretty upbeat at the end. And I'd so pay to see a Black Pearl vs. Revenge battle. Wonder how long till Barbossa notices the missing ships. Or he might not have ever known about them in the first place, as Gibbs made off with them before Barbossa took over as captain, so if Jack shows up with the Pearl and an armada, that would be so epic, although they likely wouldn't ever quite have the budget for that. Still, if/when there's a fifth movie, as long as they skip the romance of this movie, I have no problem with continuing movies.

 

I am inclined to agree. Ian McShane gave a good performance, but Blackbeard as a villain was a little underwhelming and I think that the reason for that is because Barbosa for all intents and purposes is a fictionalized Blackbeard. In COTBP, Barbosa is the pirate that other pirates are afraid of, so a pirate that frightens even the infamous Hector Barbosa should at least come up to the level of Davy Jones.

 

I saw On Stranger Tides yesterday and it was fine movie- nice simple adventure- unlike complicated end of the first trilogy (now i guess we can call it Original trilogy of the POTC ) - while At World's End has many good scenes i was very disappointed to it when it first came out- it had too much stuff and some extremely strange scenes that i think shouldn't have been added in the first place- i was very confused when i saw it- this was quite clear it didn't confuse me that much but it felt like some little explanations were lacking......

Blackbeard's supernatural powers are from two sources I think- voodoo he practices- and his sword.... sword of Triton i've heard- from Atlantis(how long does it take before we saw Atlantis itself or hear it mentioned aloud in POTC?) it looks like cutlass though - but well who knows atlantean style anyway and it could have been reforged of course..... Since Barbossa is able to use powers of the sword looks like power to control ships comes from the sword- but voodoo and making zombies is different trait Blackbeard learned at some point and has nothing to do with sword of Triton (not sure about bottling ships- is it voodoo or sword or both together)......

I've heard somewhere that owner of the sword -Triton would be also brother of Calypso (not truth in greek legends though but well Calypso is nymph- and goddess of he sea is Amphitrite wife of Poseidon and Triton is their son) so are these both heathen gods in fact atlanteans? AWE-game also says Calypso is daughter of Atlas (like in greek mythos) and after him Atlantis is named- anyway I would like to think Calypso was born to be mortal woman, but at some point of her life she became- for unknown reasons- one with the sea(pretty much like chinese sea goddess Mazu was told to have been born - AWE had many chinese and all- would make sense) and this heathen god cursing men with their wildest dreams- don't really like idea of all bizarre heathen gods existing just like that even in fantasy stories- especially when they don't seem to follow any mythology clearly....

Yeah and not even to mention that Davy Jones and Teague are also modelled after Blackbeard and Jacoby uses his burning fuses-trick and Villanueva his original flag- so adding Blackbeard himself felt like we would already have him in POTC- he didn't feel like new or fresh- Ian MacShane was good choice though and Mr. Beard had a cool ship and rigging tricks were awesome "mutineers hanged!" haha idea of his daughter trying to redeem him and all were nice but after all stuff we've seen in POTC it really felt little too ordinary story and Black didn't cause much "wow" reactions like Barbossa and Davy Jones did- he was just bad guy with a cool sword- there was not much new in him to explore like there was in characters of Jones and Barbossa who are not 100 percent evil but more sympathetic- beard was after all- just one selfish b*stard and that was bit boring in his character.....

So if Calypso was a mortal once and had a mortal brother- maybe she gave a sword to him and he died and Blackbeard later found the sword and learned to use it's power (Calypso also gave the compass to Jack) that would tie this sword up with Calypso-mythos and story of Davy Jones...... not even to mention that Aztecs even in real life said to be originally from eastern land called Atzlan (atlantis?) so maybe 'heathen gods' who cursed the gold of Cortés in COTBP also included Calypso ......

Will POTC5 -if it comes- take us to Atlantis then? I think it's quite probable in fact...

 

Only if they have a ZPM and DHD...
Or Milo shows up with the book...

Maybe Ariel and Prince Eric can put in a good word with King Triton?

 

Or they can hitch a ride on the Daedalus...

 

I thought that OST was a decent movie. But it was my least favorite of the four films. The writers tried to use many elements of the previous films - especially CotBP - and failed to make it work for me. The Spaniards were an unnecessary element in the story. The Philip/Syrena love story bored me senseless. How I longed for Will and Elizabeth. And considering how many plot points did not make sense to me makes me wonder why many consider this movie less complicated than the second and third movies is beyond me. Frankly, I would prefer DMC, CotBP and AWE over this latest flick.

But the movie had first-rate performances from Depp, Cruz, Rush and McShane. I liked the lush jungle setting for the movie's second half. And the mermaid attack was scary.