Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest
Jul. 7th, 2006 03:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieSaw Pirates of the Carribean at the midnight showing. There were a bunch of people dressed in pirate outfits, too.
This isn't as good as the original (it has too many balls in the air all at once), but it does have its moments. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I especially loved the sharply intercut, crazy opening, with the rain pouring into teacups and sodden Elizabeth waiting for Will who is brought in by soldiers.
First off, permit me to be incoherent for a bit: ORLANDO!!!!
Orlando is certainly the hottest thing I've ever seen on screen and Will Turner is my movie husband. Actually, the whole movie was worthwhile for the scene where Will is going to get whipped and they rip his shirt off and we see his bare back. Yum. Indeed. And it's his father who is going to whip him and the angst is good and I am happy. Half-naked Orlando covers a multitude of sins.
But even though Will is my movie husband, I wouldn't mind having a brief one-night stand with Norrington, who is dewigged and de-primmed and looks a lot of Wesley in the later seasons of Angel and is all ambiguous and scruffy and pissed off and hot. He's a man who did a noble thing and lost a lot and would like to get his life back. Yay.
Jack? He is not as interesting as in the first movie (but then I admit I always prefer the heroic types myself) but I can see why he is into self-preservation: every time he tries to do something decent, he gets double-crossed (see Elizabeth chaining him for the kraken at the end).
I did love Will being all noble and heroic (them's usually my types), and being all take-charge at the battle and undaunted on the Flying Dunchman. The guy is monomoniacal.
Also, I am SO relieved they did not make Elizabeth fall for Jack. When I saw her kissing him near the end, I got incredibly pissed off. But of course, it was her excuse to chain him. Of course, in some ways Jack and Elizabeth are a lot more similar to each other than to Will: Will is a 'Hero' who would never ever do such an underhanded thing.
And the cool thing is, Will SAW her kiss Jack. After he went through such hell and was willing to literally bargain away his soul to save her and had no thought but for her. The look on his face? Like he's been punched. And he just closes off after that. That is one dysfunctional pissed off guy at the end (were they going for foreshadowing with all that Davy Jones talk in the beginning about DJ loving someone/something so much but not back that it was unbearable pain blah blah and looking at Will at the same time). When he sits there at the end, stabbing the table repeatedly with his knife? Not a happy camper. And I think he agrees to join the search for Jack (last, too)mainly because he is trying to do the best for Elizabeth and he thinks Elizabeth wants Jack but repression or not, the boy is going to explode soon. And a pissed off Will is someone I'd steer clear of.
And the cool thing is, Elizabeth can never explain (I don't think she knows Will saw her but still...). Because telling Will that she tricked Jack so she could chain him to die is just as bad a thing and she can't tell it to Will. And there is the fact that (though I don't think she admits it even to herself) that kiss wasn't all business: she is a bit attracted to Jack (because he is completely unpredictable and they are a bit similar, and she is lonely and horny (wedding night she did't get to have is definitely on her mind)), though it makes me pissed off at her since Will is doinghis utmost for her at the time. And a bit of it is that she is pissed off at Jack for playing her. So yes, not something she could ever tell.
In a lot of ways, this movie is a bit darker than the original (both its blessing and a curse). Jack is willing to do a lot more cynical stuff and ends up being double-crossed and eaten. Elizabeth does something horrible: she leaves Jack as a scapegoat to a certain death. And Will, who is a bit of an absolutist, sees his ideals all shattered: he puts Elizabeth on a pedestal and he sees her kiss another man. He thinks of his father as this noble distant (if piratical) figure and ends up meeting him and can't free him even though he swore and he fails. Norrington ends up fulfilling the bidding of the corrupt bad guy etc etc. And at the end, it's guilt that drives Elizabeth to the rescue and as for Will, it's a kind of masochistic anger and his desire to see Elizabeth happy. Not a happy functional scenario.
On the cheerier side? Geoffrey Rush gets to finish that apple.
So yes, not as good as the original. But once the movie settles down a bit (after the first 45 minutes), quite quite fun. Especially if you want to see a half-naked, wet, and whipped Orlando Bloom. And oh baby, do I ever!
I need me some POTC and/or Orlando icons. And I am digging out my copy of Errol Flynn's Sea Hawk to satisfy the new-awakened pirate swashbuckler yen.
This isn't as good as the original (it has too many balls in the air all at once), but it does have its moments. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I especially loved the sharply intercut, crazy opening, with the rain pouring into teacups and sodden Elizabeth waiting for Will who is brought in by soldiers.
First off, permit me to be incoherent for a bit: ORLANDO!!!!
Orlando is certainly the hottest thing I've ever seen on screen and Will Turner is my movie husband. Actually, the whole movie was worthwhile for the scene where Will is going to get whipped and they rip his shirt off and we see his bare back. Yum. Indeed. And it's his father who is going to whip him and the angst is good and I am happy. Half-naked Orlando covers a multitude of sins.
But even though Will is my movie husband, I wouldn't mind having a brief one-night stand with Norrington, who is dewigged and de-primmed and looks a lot of Wesley in the later seasons of Angel and is all ambiguous and scruffy and pissed off and hot. He's a man who did a noble thing and lost a lot and would like to get his life back. Yay.
Jack? He is not as interesting as in the first movie (but then I admit I always prefer the heroic types myself) but I can see why he is into self-preservation: every time he tries to do something decent, he gets double-crossed (see Elizabeth chaining him for the kraken at the end).
I did love Will being all noble and heroic (them's usually my types), and being all take-charge at the battle and undaunted on the Flying Dunchman. The guy is monomoniacal.
Also, I am SO relieved they did not make Elizabeth fall for Jack. When I saw her kissing him near the end, I got incredibly pissed off. But of course, it was her excuse to chain him. Of course, in some ways Jack and Elizabeth are a lot more similar to each other than to Will: Will is a 'Hero' who would never ever do such an underhanded thing.
And the cool thing is, Will SAW her kiss Jack. After he went through such hell and was willing to literally bargain away his soul to save her and had no thought but for her. The look on his face? Like he's been punched. And he just closes off after that. That is one dysfunctional pissed off guy at the end (were they going for foreshadowing with all that Davy Jones talk in the beginning about DJ loving someone/something so much but not back that it was unbearable pain blah blah and looking at Will at the same time). When he sits there at the end, stabbing the table repeatedly with his knife? Not a happy camper. And I think he agrees to join the search for Jack (last, too)mainly because he is trying to do the best for Elizabeth and he thinks Elizabeth wants Jack but repression or not, the boy is going to explode soon. And a pissed off Will is someone I'd steer clear of.
And the cool thing is, Elizabeth can never explain (I don't think she knows Will saw her but still...). Because telling Will that she tricked Jack so she could chain him to die is just as bad a thing and she can't tell it to Will. And there is the fact that (though I don't think she admits it even to herself) that kiss wasn't all business: she is a bit attracted to Jack (because he is completely unpredictable and they are a bit similar, and she is lonely and horny (wedding night she did't get to have is definitely on her mind)), though it makes me pissed off at her since Will is doinghis utmost for her at the time. And a bit of it is that she is pissed off at Jack for playing her. So yes, not something she could ever tell.
In a lot of ways, this movie is a bit darker than the original (both its blessing and a curse). Jack is willing to do a lot more cynical stuff and ends up being double-crossed and eaten. Elizabeth does something horrible: she leaves Jack as a scapegoat to a certain death. And Will, who is a bit of an absolutist, sees his ideals all shattered: he puts Elizabeth on a pedestal and he sees her kiss another man. He thinks of his father as this noble distant (if piratical) figure and ends up meeting him and can't free him even though he swore and he fails. Norrington ends up fulfilling the bidding of the corrupt bad guy etc etc. And at the end, it's guilt that drives Elizabeth to the rescue and as for Will, it's a kind of masochistic anger and his desire to see Elizabeth happy. Not a happy functional scenario.
On the cheerier side? Geoffrey Rush gets to finish that apple.
So yes, not as good as the original. But once the movie settles down a bit (after the first 45 minutes), quite quite fun. Especially if you want to see a half-naked, wet, and whipped Orlando Bloom. And oh baby, do I ever!
I need me some POTC and/or Orlando icons. And I am digging out my copy of Errol Flynn's Sea Hawk to satisfy the new-awakened pirate swashbuckler yen.
