Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy – on HD. One of Disney’s most profitable film franchises is the Pirates of the Caribbean trio of films: starting with The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, Dead Man’s Chest in 2006 and At World’s End the next year. I thought the first was alright, second was goofy, and the third was just awful when I caught them at the theatre.
But as my purchases of home entertainment goes, I’ve been especially keen on acquiring Blu-ray editions of action-adventure films and the odd romantic comedy or drama. Specifically, nothing beats watching well-done visual spectacles on high-definition, even if the films are pretty crappy at times. So, I picked up the Pirates trilogy on Blu-ray two weeks ago, and spent about five evenings going through the approximately 7.5 hours of film (haven’t started on the feature supplements yet). And surprisingly the trilogy made for a better viewing experience than at the theatre or on DVD (yeah I’ve got all three films on DVD too LOL).
For those of us living under a rock since 2003 and without knowledge of the three films, the trilogy covers the adventures of a cast of piratey characters, some memorable, some played by actors who fit their characters to the T, and others so badly miscast that I cringe whenever they show up in their scenes. There’s Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, who’s dressed up like a 16th century rock star in dreadlocks but is played like a queer, Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Hector Barbossa who got all three films’ best lines – even if he was almost completely absent from the second film – and Tom Hollander’s Lord Beckett who bestows his antagonist character with the appropriate level of sneer and menace.
Those were the bright lead-character spots, but the three films were counter-balanced by others who were anything but. There’s girly-man Will Turner, played by Orlando Bloom who looks absolutely lost without his quiver of arrows and bow (personally, I think he should stick permanently to either playing leads in non-period romantic dramas, or elves), and Keira Knightley with that protruding and terrifically distracting jaw of hers as Elizabeth Swann, only child and daughter of Port Royal’s Governor Swann (Jonathan Pryce) and Turner’s love interest.
The lot of supporting characters sandwiched in between the leads of contrasting quality fare actually quite well. There’s Commodore James Norrington, an intelligent if somewhat constipated military officer turned pirate and played by Jack Davenport – I’d love to see him in dramas; First-mate Gibbs (Kevin McNally), who plays the role of exposition-filler and helps clear up all those confusing plot points and mythology to the audience. Pirates Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) and Pintel (Lee Arenberg), the 16th Caribbean equivalents of Laurel and Hardy and who dish up a number of laughs about pirate negotiation (“Parley…?”) and the afterlife. Even Asian super-star Chow Yun-Fat shows up in the last film as Captain Sao Feng in hilarious costume and makeup.
Continued in a later post.:)
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