Piratical Observations

Joanne and I went to go see the new Pirates of the Carribean on Sunday. And you, lucky readers, are in for a treat. Not only am I going to tell you what I thought of the film, but I'll throw in a couple of random observations as well. I know, I know, you don't have to thank me.

Entertaining, but not quite Drunken Master or Brazil

Like all the Pirates films this was entertaining. I've always enjoyed the sword fighting. In the past the choreography has been pretty impressive, at least as good as some of Jackie Chan's later Hollywood films. This was something that seemed to be missing from this film. At least until the very end. Even then it was lost in a maelstrom of other events. No decent sword fighting? And I thought this was a pirate movie!

Joanne was disappointed by the lack of Johnny Depp. She's right. There's much less of him in this film than the other two. And when we first encounter him, we have to endure ten to fifteen minutes of subgillianesque weirdness that really isn't that weird. This segment also includes Johnny Depp in a scene with several other Johnny Depps. I'm sure the good folks at Disney thought this was a good idea. ("People love Johnny; let's give them lots of Johnnies.") While Johnny Depp is superb at completely inhabiting his characters, what makes him a truly enjoyable actor to watch is the way he interacts with the other cast members. Watching him interact with himself was frankly a bit of a bore.

The film is worth seeing if you're in the mood for a big Hollywood movie, but it's not the best of the trilogy. Perhaps I should make that "tetralogy."

It's just good business

Lord Cutler Beckett, representative of the East India Company and the villain of the film, is very fond of saying "It's just good business," usually when some sort of betrayal is involved. Every time he said this, I kept thinking of Disney's approach to copyright. I suppose it is too much to hope that the film is a subtle statement of a change of heart and corporate policy. The heroes of the film are pirates, after all.

It's a small hope

As we left the cinema, it occurred to me that Pirates of the Carribean is possibly the only Disney film that is based on a Disneyland/Disneyworld ride, rather than the other way around. I sincerely hope that Disney doesn't decide that Pirates of the Caribbean worked so well that they should make films based on other rides. That said, I'm pretty sure Disney wouldn't have to resort to DRM to prevent people making pirated copies of It's a Small World: The Film.

Can I just add...

I personally believe that Lord Cutler Beckett is a fantastic name. Almost as good as Rolo Wiggins. Don't try googling it. You won't get any results, except maybe this blog post once Google spiders the site. It's a name that I randomly generated for a project I was working on, but it gets my vote for the best name ever.

Well, I did warn you that it would be random. In fact, I'm thinking of adding a tag line to this blog: "Random observations about pirates, monkeys and cheeses."