Yo ho ho and an empty bottle of rum
Jul. 26th, 2006 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlI finally saw Dead Man's Chest on Saturday, which means that there are now only two people on LiveJournal who haven't.
For their benefit:
WHAT IS THE EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY DOING IN THE CARRIBBEAN????
Ahem. The Navy seems to have lost its spine, along with Norrington. It would have been nice to have had some acknowledgement that the chaps in the red coats are Royal Marines, not the East India Company's private arresting-people troops. I actually liked where Norrington ended up at the end of Curse of the Black Pearl: willingly letting Elizabeth go to Will, and having gained a very grudging respect for Jack. Now he seems like he's back to original characterisation. I think that once the events of PotC1 had filtered back to the Admiralty, there were a few questions asked re the loss of one sloop of war and one Captain Jack Sparrow, and that's why Norrington got so obsessed with catching Jack that he sailed through a hurricane and resigned his commission. And now he's with the pigs in the mud, like Gibbs. Of course, once he was out of the Navy, it stands to reason that he would do anything to be reinstated on even to serve as a privateer.
I do not understand the plot of this film. The part with theHorcrux chest is simple enough, besides being Myffic, but the part with the East India Company has me bewildered.
Elizabeth has shed the last vestiges of a gently-bred female, although I find it hard to believe that even with a queue and breeches anyone could ever think she was a boy. No boy ever had those lips! The workings of the plot to get her aboard that ship were the weakest parts of the film for me. I was sceptical about a lady, and the Governor's daughter, being thrown into a cell next to the ordinary prisoners (you'd think she'd be under house arrest). And how would going to London help her? Surely escaping from justice is easier in the Caribbean. However, once she was in the position of having to fight for herself, she was great, if very anachronistic. She's become very handy with a pistol, not to mention swords (although she did seem to know how to shoot in PotC1) Lizzy gets her revenge on Mr Collins by holding him at gunpoint, ha. She still has her last, and era-appropriate, weapon, of keeling over in a heap, but it's much less convincing without the corset. I'm not surprised it wasn't effective; by this time the men have probably forgotten that she's there at all.
I didn't think much of the love triangle that I'd heard about. There's definitely something odd going on with that compass (it looked to be playing up on Jack too, in the 'why is the rum always gone?' scene). Jack and Elizabeth evidently fancy the pants off each other (well, Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp, it's understandable), but it's just lust, lust I tell you. And tricking someone into a position where you can leave them chained up to face certain death doesn't look much like twue wub to me. Jack and Elizabeth were always the ones who were the most ruthless in getting what they wanted (the Pearl and Will, respectively), and neither of them have changed much. Both of their predictions came true, Jack's best and Elizabeth's worst selves coming into play.
There were a couple of bits where I thought, 'Oh, cue humorous fight/chase scene here', which didn't happen in PotC1 (chases at sea are much more exciting; hopefully we'll have longer ones in PotC3). And there were more 'yuk' moments; the cannibals (Jack's toe necklace!) and Davy Jones's sailors gradually transforming into seafood. At least the Pearl's curséd crew were only horrific when the moon was up.
I loved Pintell and Ragetti's return, and how from being about to commandeer the Pearl they turned into Jack's crew. And Ragetti the evangelical, hee! 'You're reading it upside-down' 'It's the Bible, you get credit for trying!'
The undead monkey returns! I loved the way Jack kept shooting it.
I liked the Voodoo Woman. We have decided that in the grand scheme of things, she is Yoda. Lives in a swamp, makes mysterious pronouncements, introduced in the second film....
Somehow I can't help loving Will. He's still doggedly doing the right thing even when he gets kicked in the teeth, and I'm sure people are saying he's boring, but....
And he looks very niiice in this one, getting very grown-up looking, too. He's noble, heroic, great soprano....
Jack seems to get more and more wick as a pirate captain. Now we find out that he sold his soul to Davy Jones to even get to be one in the first place.
I don't think there were as many memorable lines in this as in PotC1, or at any rate I can't remember them. I liked 'We will pry the chest from your cold, dead hands' *thud* and 'I won't leave Jack!' *cannibals appear* 'Time to go!' and 'I'm looking for the man I love' *panic*
I feel I need to see it again to do some more in-depth commentary.
For their benefit:
WHAT IS THE EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY DOING IN THE CARRIBBEAN????
Ahem. The Navy seems to have lost its spine, along with Norrington. It would have been nice to have had some acknowledgement that the chaps in the red coats are Royal Marines, not the East India Company's private arresting-people troops. I actually liked where Norrington ended up at the end of Curse of the Black Pearl: willingly letting Elizabeth go to Will, and having gained a very grudging respect for Jack. Now he seems like he's back to original characterisation. I think that once the events of PotC1 had filtered back to the Admiralty, there were a few questions asked re the loss of one sloop of war and one Captain Jack Sparrow, and that's why Norrington got so obsessed with catching Jack that he sailed through a hurricane and resigned his commission. And now he's with the pigs in the mud, like Gibbs. Of course, once he was out of the Navy, it stands to reason that he would do anything to be reinstated on even to serve as a privateer.
I do not understand the plot of this film. The part with the
Elizabeth has shed the last vestiges of a gently-bred female, although I find it hard to believe that even with a queue and breeches anyone could ever think she was a boy. No boy ever had those lips! The workings of the plot to get her aboard that ship were the weakest parts of the film for me. I was sceptical about a lady, and the Governor's daughter, being thrown into a cell next to the ordinary prisoners (you'd think she'd be under house arrest). And how would going to London help her? Surely escaping from justice is easier in the Caribbean. However, once she was in the position of having to fight for herself, she was great, if very anachronistic. She's become very handy with a pistol, not to mention swords (although she did seem to know how to shoot in PotC1) Lizzy gets her revenge on Mr Collins by holding him at gunpoint, ha. She still has her last, and era-appropriate, weapon, of keeling over in a heap, but it's much less convincing without the corset. I'm not surprised it wasn't effective; by this time the men have probably forgotten that she's there at all.
I didn't think much of the love triangle that I'd heard about. There's definitely something odd going on with that compass (it looked to be playing up on Jack too, in the 'why is the rum always gone?' scene). Jack and Elizabeth evidently fancy the pants off each other (well, Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp, it's understandable), but it's just lust, lust I tell you. And tricking someone into a position where you can leave them chained up to face certain death doesn't look much like twue wub to me. Jack and Elizabeth were always the ones who were the most ruthless in getting what they wanted (the Pearl and Will, respectively), and neither of them have changed much. Both of their predictions came true, Jack's best and Elizabeth's worst selves coming into play.
There were a couple of bits where I thought, 'Oh, cue humorous fight/chase scene here', which didn't happen in PotC1 (chases at sea are much more exciting; hopefully we'll have longer ones in PotC3). And there were more 'yuk' moments; the cannibals (Jack's toe necklace!) and Davy Jones's sailors gradually transforming into seafood. At least the Pearl's curséd crew were only horrific when the moon was up.
I loved Pintell and Ragetti's return, and how from being about to commandeer the Pearl they turned into Jack's crew. And Ragetti the evangelical, hee! 'You're reading it upside-down' 'It's the Bible, you get credit for trying!'
The undead monkey returns! I loved the way Jack kept shooting it.
I liked the Voodoo Woman. We have decided that in the grand scheme of things, she is Yoda. Lives in a swamp, makes mysterious pronouncements, introduced in the second film....
Somehow I can't help loving Will. He's still doggedly doing the right thing even when he gets kicked in the teeth, and I'm sure people are saying he's boring, but....
And he looks very niiice in this one, getting very grown-up looking, too. He's noble, heroic, great soprano....
Jack seems to get more and more wick as a pirate captain. Now we find out that he sold his soul to Davy Jones to even get to be one in the first place.
I don't think there were as many memorable lines in this as in PotC1, or at any rate I can't remember them. I liked 'We will pry the chest from your cold, dead hands' *thud* and 'I won't leave Jack!' *cannibals appear* 'Time to go!' and 'I'm looking for the man I love' *panic*
I feel I need to see it again to do some more in-depth commentary.
