Thursday May 24, 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Another day, another sequel (sequel of a sequel actually). Again it was released in Europe a few days before the US, which always make me snicker a bit (Hey, I do remember a time when I had to wait months after its US release for a movie to show up in theaters in Paris where I grew up. So I think it's fair enough).

Anyway, my expectations for that one where actually pretty low this time. The first "Pirates" took me totally by surprise (talk about low expectations when I went to see it!) and was a total blast. It was up there with Shrek when it comes to movies that surprised the heck out of me at the time. But the second installment widely reported flaws seriously dampened my enthusiasm. While there was some fun to have, most of the magic was gone. There were a number of reasons for that, and I'll come back to it later since it is relevant to the 3rd episode.

A funny thing happened while we were waiting to enter the theater (which was hardly full by the way): One of my friend who couldn't remember the previous episode asked me to refresh her memory. Turns out I failed miserably at it. The story was so confused and so uninteresting that it dragged down all my efforts to tell it (you try it! You'll see I'm not kidding). It also proved, to me at least, that I didn't really care about what would happen to the various characters of the movie. Low expectations, I'm telling you.

So, how bad is it? Let's see. The movie is about 2h45 long, and, if you ask me, that's about 1h too long. Seriously! The first 1h30 to 2h of it just drag forever. It's tedious, it's boring, it feels like it will never end! The good news is that it DOES end and the last 45' or so are fun to watch. The bad news is that it's not quite worth it.

And we have the usual suspects to blame for that misfire. First, and as way too often, the script. No real surprise since this 3rd part was shot back to back after the 2nd one, so there were very little chance the writing would have improved. The story is a confusing mess that doesn't make sense most of the time. I know it's fantasy, but come on! Is it too much to ask that the characters make sense within their world? That their motivation are believable? That their relationships seem to work? Because we have none of that here. Make us care for what what happens to them!

The second strike, for me, is Elizabeth, the character played by Kiera Knightley. It was obviously shoe-horned in there to give her a bigger part. In the first one, she was the archetypal "damsel in distress". She wasn't a very good one (missing charm and charisma if you ask me) but that didn't matter much. But now, she's been promoted to swashbuckling, ass-kicking, killing machine, and I'm sorry, but that doesn't make any sense at all. Plus she's not one bit convincing about it. To make matter worse, her relationship with Will (Orlando Bloom), which wasn't really hot stuff to begin with, is so flat, so unemotional, that when they do finally express their love to each other (they spend the first 3/4 of the movie ignoring each other) you're quite surprised. Everything about her is forced and feels fake. It doesn't help, of course, that she doesn't seem to be a very good actress either. At least not in these 3 movies, if you ask me.

Third strike, and I'll stop there, is that the humor that made the first one such a fun experience, is mostly gone. Oh, sure, Johnny Depp do have a few funny scenes and some good lines. His scene with Keith Richards, for instance, is genuinely funny and perfect for the character he created. But that doesn't save the movie.

A couple of quickies:

The special effects are worth mentioning for two reasons: they're perfect and they're probably why the movie falls apart. As is typical with Hollywood lately, too much focus on eye candy, not enough on story and characters.

There is an extra scene after the end credits. But considering they do last for a long time (8 to 9' I believe), it may not be worth waiting for it. If you don't have the patience, be assured you're not missing much.

Next sequel of a Sequel: Shrek the third, which hasn't been released in Europe yet (there is some karma for you). Somehow I suspect the trend of this summer will continue. We'll see soon enough. Not holding my breath though.