There were several high and low points in my revisits to the three films too this week: memorable scenes that worked very well, and scenes that were just awful.
For the former: the standout scenes included the introduction of Jack Sparrow – the character sails into Port Royal about a rapidly sinking little row boat, and the trilogy’s final scene (not counting the easter-egg after the credits roll) is of Jack sailing off to find the Fountain of Youth in a similar dinghy. There’s also Sparrow and Orlando, whoops, Turner’s hilarious theft of HMS Interceptor, the three-way sword fight between Sparrow, Norrington and Turner, and Elizabeth Swann’s attempt at parleying with Captain Barbossa (“The code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules!”). Heck, all the scenes with Barbossa were a hoot to watch, and I’m glad Geoffrey Rush is returning with Johnny Depp to do the fourth film “On Stranger Tides” together.
As for the low points, well – all the scenes with Keira Knightley’s Swann in pirate gear and trying to pirate talk. Really CMI: she just does not look or talk like the part requires. The lowest point was when she tries to do that inspirational “Let’s go get ‘em!” talk for the Brethren Court fleet against overwhelming odds in the form of the Beckett’s East India Fleet just before the climatic battle of the last film. Maybe she was to trying to channel William Wallace. Too bad it just didn’t work. Her counterpart, Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner fared better though it’s still a huge strain listening to his slightly tenorish-baritone mixed voice trying to sound macho.
The CG work for all three films are amazingly good and on high def you see a lot more detail that you might have missed on the big screen or on DVD. Especially those visual characters that makeup Captain Davy Jones (veteran Brit actor Bill Nighy)’s cursed crew. I thought Gollum from LOTR looked obviously computer generated, but in Pirates, the crew members look so real I have a hard time believing that they are all CGed, logic at whether creeping tentacles for beards and dread locks are even humanly possible aside.
—
As for missed opportunities: starting with music: Hans Zimmer I think took a lot of flak for self-plagiarizing and mining his earlier soundtracks for the Pirates trilogy. I thought the music is indeed semi-repetitive across the three films and aimed squarely to please the mass demographic without concern for musical subtlety or sophistication. There was another pirate film – Cutthroat Island – from 1995 starring Matthew Modine and Geena Davis, the latter actress who seems to have nearly completely disappeared off film radar. That film had a superb film soundtrack by John Debney, and it played homage to the 1930-1950s swashbuckling film scores of Erich Korngold. The music in this Pirates trilogy on the other hand is easy on the ear and catchy enough. But there’s little in its main themes that signify it’s a series of films on the colorful Caribbean era of the 16th century. In other words, the music here is what you’d found in King Arthur which in turn was what you found in Gladiator which sounded suspiciously like what one heard in The Rock.
There’s also the absence of character-pair conflict and tensions in a couple of spots. In some instances where there is, it works: e.g. Barbossa and Sparrow’s mutual antagonism over the Black Pearl’s ownership makes for some of the last film’s biggest laughs. Remember that scene about telescope sizes, or that “Belay that belay order!” scene of dialog between the two? The Laurel and Hardy character team of Ragetti and Pintel works for me too.
What didn’t and not trivially so: lovebirds Turner and Swann. It doesn’t help when the two of them have about as much chemistry as oil and water, and both were miscast if for different reasons. The two of them start out having hots for each other at the get-go and it’s sustained for the next two films. The one spot which presents an opportunity for conflict and which should had been farmed for material is given short drift instead. I’m referring to the scene when Turner sees Swann smooching Sparrow (before she ties him down with the ship to appease to Kraken LOL) and mistakenly believes she’s got a thing for him. It’s resolved in the third film in a lover’s quarrel scene, but not satisfactorily.
—
All said and done and on balance, I enjoyed my week-long revisits to the three films. Based on my original viewings, I would have rated the trilogy perhaps two stars. But for the revisits and perhaps now that I’ve paid more attention to the proceedings, the experience improved significantly. Not perfect, but still a terrifically enjoyable…
Recent comments