Pirates of the Caribbean 2

raisedbywolves · Post by **raisedbywolves** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:36 am

This is pretty much everything I was worried about. Like Lucas and his prequels, Gore Verbinski and crew forgot that the success of the original was at least 50% attributable to charismatic characters and wit. Instead, we have a story that is entirely too plot-based, so everyone's too busy running from Point A to Point B (and back and forth and back and forth) to be witty. Jack Sparrow may be the definition of a one-off character; there's not enough to him to sustain interest over this movie's crazy-long running time (not to mention another sequel next summer), and Orlando and Keira don't help much either. It has a few decent action sequences, but, like Kong, no one knew where to end them. The fight on the wheel is pretty cool, but 10 minutes later, you're like "they're still on that fucking wheel?" C-

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 8:20 am

It was a popcorn movie. I went in expecting a C, and came out with a B. Ish. There were a few too many throwbacks to the original for me. Yeah, I get it, lots of fans quote those parts, we don't need to see them recycled. Just felt a step too far on the cheesy factor.

The ending was pretty cool. That's the first midnight screening in a looong time where people have clapped at the end.

And there's a scene after the credits, so stick around. It's not so cool, but it is cute.

stueym · Post by **stueym** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:40 pm

I really enjoyed this movie a lot. It's a fun popcorn movie. Don't go in with sky high expectations, just go along for the ride and enjoy the show. I sometimes wonder if we all get a little too wrapped up in the critique to enjoy the ride.

Excellent creature effects throughout, good humorous sensibility and I respectfully disagree RxW. I thought that Norrington's fall from grace and the Will's father storyline were pretty good character extensions from the original and seperated from our core three-some. I hope the East India company storyline is going somewhere and not just a plot device (I suspect there is more)....and I loved Bill Nighy's Davey Jones along with his Northern Irish by way of West Country accent.

Bjam is right there are nice surprises at the end both before and after the credits.

Just remember folks yet again this is a multi part story. It's part one of two (or is that 2 of 3:-)) so lots remains unresolved at the end.

raisedbywolves · Post by **raisedbywolves** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:31 pm

This is the all-Philly Pirates discussion thread! Represent!

I really really really wanted to like this. I am most adept at shutting off my critic-brain and enjoying the ride (see my MI:3 love). This just feels really forced. My problem with sequels to self-contained originals is they always pile on the plot. I loved the first one, but do I give a whit about what happened to poor Norrington? No, I do not. And I feel compelled to warn those who haven't seen it - Bjam is right; the credit cookie is cute and about 10 seconds long, and I'm glad I stayed for it. The rest of my party was not so glad, probably since the credits are, like, 10 minutes long and it was already almost 3 in the morning. Use your own discretion.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:10 pm

raisedbywolves wrote:This is the all-Philly Pirates discussion thread! Represent!

Woo!

(White font for possibly spoilerage)
I was thinking about the movie, and really, I can't remember much about it. Part of this could be to do with seeing it at midnight after a busy day(including entertaining a two year old for a few hours, gah), but I think it's mainly down to an eh script. You get thrown into plot straight away, and then it's all pretty go-go-go. You never really get any redemption for the beginning purpose of the plot, which is Will has to get this key to save Elizabeth and then they can live Happily Ever After. But they all do their own thing and it gets kinda mucked up and confusing. Like the dice game. Did anyone have any idea of what was happening? I get that Will was trying to find out where the key was, and his dad was screwing all that up, but the game itself made no sense, so in that 2 minute sequence I was thrown completely out of the movie. I dunno. I think the script just could've done with a revision or two more.

Still good and popcorny though.

john m · Post by **john m** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:10 pm

What the hell is a popcorn movie?

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:20 pm

Popcorn movie: A good and fun film. Not excellent, but a good film to go and see and have a few laughs, but not leave pondering deep questions.

Maybe it's a Brit term. Or a Miller family term.

stueym · Post by **stueym** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:46 pm

Here you go...

1. popcorn movie
a summer action flick, not monumental, a good waste of time

Van Helsing was such a popcorn movie.

courtesy of

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... corn+movie

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:26 pm

I read RxW's review, went in expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised. The sequel matches the tone of the original pretty much exactly. Sure there are over-long, over-elaborate action scenes, but there were in the original too. Sure the whole movie is characters running from point A to point B and back again, but that's how the first movie was as well. Walking out of the original I had wondered what happened to the eternally anchored Bootstrap (was he still down there somewhere?); I was very pleased that they answered that question. My three big complaints are: 1) many of the characters' actions and motivations aren't explained very well (I'd cite examples, but they'd be spoilerific), 2) Orlando still has nothing to do in the franchise, and 3) Keira passes very poorly.

Oh yeah, and What The Butt was up with that dice game? B+

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:33 pm

I'm going to see this on Friday night, for my girlfriend Linda's birthday. In Gold Class, no less! Beer and Italian bread and dips always make a movie terrific.

Hopefully this movie won't attempt to kill Linda, unlike the last one we went too.

I'll give my thoughts on it after I've seen it, but I am so looking forward to this movie. I love Jack Sparrow in was that probably aren't healthy for a hetrosexual male.

raisedbywolves · Post by **raisedbywolves** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:29 pm

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the film. I guess it's a pretty fun night out.

The dice game is basically Liar's Dice, which we used to play as a drinking game at Penn State. Here is the Wiki entry.

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:18 am

Ok, watched this tonight. I quite liked it. I didn't like that whole, movie made to support making a sequel thing. But overall it was a good movie. I'm with Bjam, that they kind of introduced far too many plot hooks. they could have stripped out a little to make the whole film seem a little more robust. It seems more manic than robust, people going everywhere basically from the word go.

I thought it was a coincidence with the first movie... but now with this second one, does anybody else notice that parts of Pirates of the Carribean closely mirrors the Monkey Island games?

Post by jb » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:35 am

<b>C+</b>

MAYBE SPOILERS BELOW.

The two holdover badguys from the last movie are NOT as amusing as this movie thinks they are. And Jack's main companion pirate is kind of a bad actor. And Shane's right, man, they run around a heck of a lot in this movie. Always off to Tortuga. Way too much going on , not enough time to just settle down and have a conversation-- a fun, witty conversation.

But that Kraken, man, that was cool. SO HUGE. Really a good job making it look enormous. My favorite parts of the movie. Although Orlando's plan to get rid of it was completely nonsensical, and everybody seemed to get it right away even though he never ever explained it. Come on writers, you have to explain the plan before you show the plan, unless the whole point is not to show it, but in this case that WASN'T the point so you should have EXPLAINED it so we'd know what they were trying to accomplish. This isn't the opening to Punch Drunk Love, you know!

And damn, that ending. BLAH. Since when is everybody all "We love Jack sooooo much. Even us bad pirates." This movie didn't sell that at ALL.

Verbinski's on a slide with me. Didn't like Weatherman, didn't like this. PLEEEEEEEASE DO SOMETHING GOOD FOR PART III.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:32 pm

I thought the movie was alright. Good and fun to watch. Plot heavy and I agree that it could have slimmed down some unecessary plot and time. We've all come to love Jack Sparrow...but this movie tried to remind us that he was in fact a pirate after all. I don't care that there will be a third. This one didn't leave me hoping for another one. Was glad it was over in a sense. Not that I didn't like it...just that when it was done, so was I.

I unfortunately overheard a entertainment correspondent on CNN describe Depp's Jack Sparrow and never got it out of my head. So I watched the whole movie watching Depp act like the following paraphrased description:

A little gay, and a little drunk.

His mannerisms had me chuckling on the inside during the whole film. SPOILER WARNING - especially the kiss.

Eric Y. · Post by **Eric Y.** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:25 am

Hoblit wrote:This one didn't leave me hoping for another one. Was glad it was over in a sense. Not that I didn't like it...just that when it was done, so was I.

i felt the same way about the first movie.
i liked it a lot, but it seemed like it told a complete story that did not need anything further added to it. (i will probably see #2, though i'm not in any hurry-- probably i'll wait a few weeks or months til it hits the dollar theater.)

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 2:24 pm

tviyh wrote:i will probably see #2, though i'm not in any hurry-- probably i'll wait a few weeks or months til it hits the dollar theater

If one movie this summer deserves the THX treatment it's this one.

Well, I guess there's still a lot of summer movies to go; I guess I'll see what Snakes on a Plane brings to the table before I start making oscar predictions.

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:28 am

Hoblit wrote:A little gay, and a little drunk.

isn't that j$?

jezebelus · Post by **jezebelus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:37 am

This movie is brilliant, much better then first one which was also great. I like Johnny's look very much. When I saw him in the first movie I didn't recognize him at the moment after watching Charlie And Chocolate Factory. Very good actor.

himynameisntmark · Post by **himynameisntmark** » Thu May 17, 2007 12:41 am

I liked it a lot. Mind you, I didn't go into the theatre thinking of comparing it to the first movie. Both movies have different storylines and should be treated as such. At the same time, Jack Sparrow lost a bit of his touch in the second movie. Here's hoping the third one knocks both of them out of the water!