Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

Wow....kind of a strange mini-review. Not sure what to expect but one thing that helped me by reading it was too expect a bit of uneasiness?

Regardless, I'm there on Thursday's first showing!

 

[Kevin Grey]

I was disappointed with DMC but I'll still be seeing World's End and I'm hopeful this one will be better. That said, Moriarty comparing the second movie to EMPIRE already tells me that we aren't on the same page with this series.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I didn't get the sense that the comparison was intended as a value judgment so much as saying the second film opened up and expanded the mythology of the universe - that and the fact that it directly pointed to plot lines being resolved in a third film. While I don't think of the films as being of the same caliber, DMC really struck me as much closer to ESB in spirit than something like Spider-man 2 was.

Interesting comments by Moriarty. It will be interesting to see how general audiences take to a "Giliam type" take on this series. This may be the Batman Returns of the Pirates movies.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Yeah, I should have clarified- I wasn't talking value judgments. My feeling on DMC was that it *didn't* do what Empire did- ie expand the universe in terms of mythology and characters. The first 2 hours of DMC felt like a Curse of the Black Pearl rehash without the charm. Admittedly they finally did some interesting character stuff in the last half hour but it was too little-too late by that point.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I'll wait for a DVD rental, maybe not even that.

 

[Scott98]

sweeeeeet

 

[Michael:M]

This puzzles me. In DMC, we get Lord Beckett, hints of a past run-in between Beckett and Jack, the EITC encroaching on the world of pirating, Davy Jones and his agreement with Jack, Will and Elizabeth's development (and perhaps devolution) into the thing they claim to despise, Norrington showing a bit more depth and dimension, and so on.

IMNSHO, DMC did an excellent job expanding and deepening the world and characters introduced in the first film.

You reaction and thoughts are yours, of course - I'm not arguing you're wrong in some absolute sense, but it seems to me that DMC did the very thing you said it didn't. For me, it ranks up there with Empire and Matrix: Reloaded for second episodes that match or surpass the original.

Yeah, you read that right. I'm a definite fan of Matrix: Reloaded.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I'm a fan of Matrix Reloaded as well.

I haven't seen DMC since release (though I plan to rewatch it before seeing the third film) so I can't go into too much detail since I frankly don't remember much of it but basically I didn't think the new elements were very well developed and integrated. Yeah there is the upcoming war on the Pirates (evidently a huge portion of the third film) but it was only given vague lip service in the second movie. Norrington was pretty much the same character from the first movie, just more bitter and not interesting (disappointing to me since I'm a fan of Davenport since seeing him on Ultraviolet). The development you speak of for Jack, Will, and Elizabeth only appeared a the end. The rest of the movie they were just riffing on their characters from the first one, only more unlikable.

 

[JonZ]

"I was a bit disappointed with the trailer for "At World's End"."

Really? When I saw the trailer in front of SM3 I turned to my G/F and said "wow, what a amazing "looking" movie."

 

[Tim Glover]

Especially with the extremely disappointing Spidey 3, At Worlds End, for me, holds a great deal of excitement and hope. I am hoping this ends the way we all want it to, and because of that I have the feeling it won't. ...I really have no idea what that sentence means.

 

[DavidPla]

But isn't that pretty much Empire? There isn't much change in any character until the end and there is no mention of the building of the second Death Star that appears in the third film.

 

[Kevin Grey]

The characters in Empire have changed enormously from the get-go. Luke isn't just the hero who blew up the Death Star but he's clearly continued to prove himself and is respected as a leader in the Rebel Alliance. Han Solo also obviously has also gained enormous respect (albeit grudging) from the Rebels and it's clear that he and Luke are much closer than they were at the end of Episode 4. That great first verbal sparring between Han and Leia in the corridors on Hoth makes it very apparent that they have had a bit of "history" as well since the last movie.

Indeed, the first act of Empire is really a marvel the way that it establishes what has happened with the characters in the gap between movies with minimal exposition while simultaneously pushing the film forward and staying exciting.

The characters are instantly recognizable as those we left at the end of the previous movie yet it's also immediately apparent that they have changed too. And then the movie itself develops them further so that their actions in the last act are earned and don't come out of left field.

 

[JonZ]

uh oh

James Bs review....
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/p/pi...aribbean3.html

 

[Brent M]

The big complaint in the early reviews I've read is the film's length and I really don't see why they had to make this flick nearly 3 hours long. The main problem I had with DMC was it's running time and this looks to be nearly a half hour longer. These flicks should clock in at around 2 hrs. max and anything more is just unnecessary excess IMHO.

 

[TravisR]

I like both of the POTC movies but I think that statement is accurate and even worse is that it applies to ALOT of movies today.

 

[Michael:M]

Both Pirates movies are long, but I'm fine with their length. About the only thing in DMC I'd cut out or shorten is the Cannibal Island part.

For the first film, I thought the ending was far too long - should have ended in the cave on Isla de Muerta, after Barbossa was killed.

So I guess I agree with some trimming would be helpful, but I really like DMC, and am happy with it as-is.

 

[Brent M]

I'm much more partial to Black Pearl than I am to DMC and the running time of it didn't bother me nearly as much as that of the sequel. Having said that, I think a 3 hour Pirates film is definitely overkill and I honestly don't know if I'll go see this at theater now that I know how long it is. I might be happier watching At World's End in my home on Blu Ray in a few months.

 

[Tim Glover]

Not a real glowing review from James B for sure....still, he cites the final hour as being pretty amazing. Less than 2 days before the premiere...

 

[CoreyII]

Good review by James B., but I really hate that "there's a little Han Solo in this Luke Skywalker" comment. Why does everyone hype Solo up at the expense of Luke. Just my little rant.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Length is NEVER a problem. Pacing and material are. Good movies are never long enough and bad movies never short enough. Most viewers confuse pacing with length

A properly paced 3 hour film feels like 100 minutes.