Franchise’s End?
Pirates 3 Review

By Aaron 5/30/2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Gore Verbinski - 2007 - 5/10



The movie begins right where the second one left off. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is in some quasi purgatory at the end of the world. The rest of the gang, led by Elizabeth (Kiera Knoghtley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) need to convince the powerful Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun Fat) to help them get to Jack. While Sao Feng prefers Jack dead and gone, he agrees since he believes they need “the nine” Pirate lords to concoct some plan to defeat the East India Company. Once the council has convened, each person jockeys for control, one wants to free their father, another owes a debt to powerful wizard, while another has dreams of immortality while still another believes they are doing the right thing (for all Pirates). Which course will they chart? Double cross after double cross and each escapes with a new deal after a new deal.

My nice thoughts are that the action was really good. Good sea-fighting scenes, intense swordfighting, very good melee scenes (just like the other two movies) and lots of hilarity. The feel of the movie is a little better than the second one – less inside jokes and more general humor. But when you think about it, there isn’t a lot of good for me to say besides that I love the story and the characters.

What I would change would be a lot – much of this movie makes little sense. Three hours long and most of that time is left trying to figure out confusing double crosses, seemingly out of the blue sacrifices, all amidst non stop action. Despite going into this movie with low expectations, I came away disappointed. I just could not figure out what was happening. Characters made deals and bargains with other characters so frequently and so quickly it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Then you chalk up the fact that any plotline, character, weapon, or object that was mentioned in passing in the first two movies had a pretty good shot of coming back for this movie and you’re running around with your head cut off. Characters seemed different in this movie too.  Previously unique character traits from the first movie that were watered down in the second movie are now entirely gone. And the villains are given too much humanity in this installment as Davy Jones is literally given heart and our evil East India Company instigator is shown to be just a man with a dream. There are too many “dream sequences,” especially with Johnny Depp and many of them try too hard to be funny, but are really just cheesy. Corniness abounds, as to be expected, but as mentioned previously, the end result does not make you forgiving. Sure, you knew this was going to be a popcorn flick, but you can't give the movie a free pass.



What I want to see in the Pirates 4 is the departure of Orlando Bloom and maybe Kiera and a more realistic approach harkening back to the first movie – less mysticism and more pirating. The premise for this movie seems to be well situated and the little bit of plot for the NEXT movie in THIS movie is much more interesting (to me) than the plot that was in this movie. It is set up real well with Barbosa and Jack racing to get a mildly mystic treasure that is magical enough to be different but not too crazy to not be pirate-y. But it goes without saying that Depp needs to be in the next movie.

When it comes down to it, it probably doesn’t matter – regardless of this review, like most of America, you’re going to see this movie anyways. Five salty stix.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.