Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Jun. 24th, 2007 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inmyriadbitsI have some qualms, and some good things to say. Let's start with the former.
I suppose one of my problems with the trilogization (what? There needs to be a verb, since they keep making three-quels to movies) has to do with my conception of the pirate genre. The best quality of a pirate movie the impossible fantasy of a free life. That life likely never existed and never will, and it's an incredibly escapist concept, but everyone sort of secretly longs for it, don't they? The first film had that in spades; it was the best pirate movie I've ever seen and probably always will be.
The other movies weren't bad, per se; Dead Man's Chest suffered from Setting Up The Third Part Syndrome and too many overdone nods to the first part, but it was reasonably fun. At World's End was a nice finish to the character and story arcs set up in DMC and entertaining as well. But Curse of the Black Pearl was an entirely different creature--it had all the joy and swashbuckling you could want from a pirate movie, all that a movie about pirates can give. The other two weren't quite right because--and I can't believe I'm saying this--they brought in consequences. And what that meant was that the movie as a whole didn't sweep me off my feet in the same way. I enjoyed it, and parts of it swept me away...but it wasn't a pirate movie.
The thing about genre is that it fulfills some need in the psyche, something irresolvable about life. It makes us turn to the same space and characters and plots as we try to work out the Gordian Knots in our humanity; Westerns deal with frontiers, science fiction with the future and the dangers we create for ourselves in technology, romantic comedies with the integration of lives, etc. Pirate movies are about freedom, which is why Elizabeth's speech was supposed to work. Only it didn't, because AWE wasn't a pirate movie. It was something else, dressed up in a pirate costume. The story was fine as stories go, but without the soul of genre behind it, it lost that resonance.
That said, I liked the movie. Now that I've gotten all that genre venting out of the way, I have to say that looking back, the second and third movies deal with totally separate arcs than the first. And so I shall split them. The stories don't allow the movies to truly belong to the pirate genre, but they were well told. What it lost in terms of genre resonance, it gained back in its characters' stories.
(Actually, I suppose if you re-categorize the second and third movies as fantasy rather than pirate movies, it works better. Hmm. Because fantasy as a genre is all about allowing for story lines that you can't see in realistic worlds, such as LotR-type battles between good and evil personified or deathless love stories, because you can actually bring people back from the dead. Hmm...)
The sadness of the ending is soothed a bit by what I've heard about the curse of the Flying Dutchman: if the captain's love is true to him, the curse is broken after he serves the ten years. Katie tells me there was a cut scene that maybe addressed that? Anyway, it makes a bunch more sense that way, because not only does it explain Davy Jones' bitterness more fully (she wasn't there for him, and so he was cursed forever), but Will and Elizabeth don't have to suffer the saddest ending EVER.
I actually really like Will, which surprises me, because he annoyed the shit out of me in the first movie. He's a bit Luke Skywalker, isn't he? From whiny, naive, idealistic kid to brave, honorable, and capable hero is a classic character arc, and Orlando Bloom pulled it off well. Color me shocked.
As much as Norrington's storyline was dissatisfying and his death broke my heart, at least he had a totally badass death scene. Kiss the girl? Check. Heroic sacrifice? Check. Redemption? Check. Best last word ever? (Let us consider: "Do you fear death?" *stabs*) Check.
Maybe Kalypso will bring him back. That would be fun.
As for Elizabeth...I was going back to see other people's reviews, and something![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
taraljc said was interesting. She commented that "This story has always been Elizabeth's story, from the very first shot to the coda of Elizabeth waiting on the beach with her son for Will's day off." I'm trying to figure out what that story is. There's the love story between her and Will, and her adventures in piracy, but neither of those are it alone. I think it's just a more nebulous coming into her own--in love, in strength, and in independence. Of all the main characters, she most fully takes on responsibility. Will is left in limbo and Jack doesn't even understand the meaning of the word.
Also, if the trilogy is her story (I'd thought about it more as a ensemble before), that makes the father thing less surprising. I was expecting Bootstrap to die, because the death of one's parent is necessary for the hero to realize his or her potential. It's a storytelling standard that is beyond ancient. (I talk about it a bit more here in regard to SPN. Huh, I totally called John's death, didn't I?) Anyway, so I was expecting Will's dad to die, because he most blatantly fits the hero role. But Will's dad doesn't die, and neither does Jack's father; Elizabeth is the one orphaned. I find that fascinating.
Surprisingly...I'm most ambiguous about Jack. He's still a great character played marvelously well by Mr. Depp, but...what's his story? In the first movie, he wants his ship back. In the second, he's completely indecisive about...something. Being honorable? I honestly can't remember. And in the third, he's afraid of death and trying to find a way out. He remains self-interested, devious, and disarmingly funny, with curious appearances of a sense of honor when he decides something matters to him. Actually, I take it back--he does make sense. I guess he's a bit like Peter Pan. It's like he sprang forth fully formed. It doesn't matter so much where he comes from, and he doesn't need a destination, it only matters that he exists. He's never going to change, but he'll have adventures forever--Peter as an eternal child, and Jack as an eternal sailor and lover of the sea. Alright. I'm okay with that.
Barbossa was totally badass. I love him, the crazy bastard. He made a pitch-perfect villain in the first movie, an excellent surprise at the end of the second, and a wickedly fun *cough* ally in the third. When he takes the helm in the maelstrom and starts shouting orders? Badass. Marrying Will and Elizabeth, as cheesy as that was, while kicking butt? Badass. Stealing Jack's ship out from under him (again)? Priceless. :D He made me happy, and was the most piratey thing onscreen in AWE.
I'm running out of steam. Does the coolness of the special effects need to be stated? Because they were cool.
Anyway, thoughts? Please disagree with me, I love that.
I suppose one of my problems with the trilogization (what? There needs to be a verb, since they keep making three-quels to movies) has to do with my conception of the pirate genre. The best quality of a pirate movie the impossible fantasy of a free life. That life likely never existed and never will, and it's an incredibly escapist concept, but everyone sort of secretly longs for it, don't they? The first film had that in spades; it was the best pirate movie I've ever seen and probably always will be.
The other movies weren't bad, per se; Dead Man's Chest suffered from Setting Up The Third Part Syndrome and too many overdone nods to the first part, but it was reasonably fun. At World's End was a nice finish to the character and story arcs set up in DMC and entertaining as well. But Curse of the Black Pearl was an entirely different creature--it had all the joy and swashbuckling you could want from a pirate movie, all that a movie about pirates can give. The other two weren't quite right because--and I can't believe I'm saying this--they brought in consequences. And what that meant was that the movie as a whole didn't sweep me off my feet in the same way. I enjoyed it, and parts of it swept me away...but it wasn't a pirate movie.
The thing about genre is that it fulfills some need in the psyche, something irresolvable about life. It makes us turn to the same space and characters and plots as we try to work out the Gordian Knots in our humanity; Westerns deal with frontiers, science fiction with the future and the dangers we create for ourselves in technology, romantic comedies with the integration of lives, etc. Pirate movies are about freedom, which is why Elizabeth's speech was supposed to work. Only it didn't, because AWE wasn't a pirate movie. It was something else, dressed up in a pirate costume. The story was fine as stories go, but without the soul of genre behind it, it lost that resonance.
That said, I liked the movie. Now that I've gotten all that genre venting out of the way, I have to say that looking back, the second and third movies deal with totally separate arcs than the first. And so I shall split them. The stories don't allow the movies to truly belong to the pirate genre, but they were well told. What it lost in terms of genre resonance, it gained back in its characters' stories.
(Actually, I suppose if you re-categorize the second and third movies as fantasy rather than pirate movies, it works better. Hmm. Because fantasy as a genre is all about allowing for story lines that you can't see in realistic worlds, such as LotR-type battles between good and evil personified or deathless love stories, because you can actually bring people back from the dead. Hmm...)
The sadness of the ending is soothed a bit by what I've heard about the curse of the Flying Dutchman: if the captain's love is true to him, the curse is broken after he serves the ten years. Katie tells me there was a cut scene that maybe addressed that? Anyway, it makes a bunch more sense that way, because not only does it explain Davy Jones' bitterness more fully (she wasn't there for him, and so he was cursed forever), but Will and Elizabeth don't have to suffer the saddest ending EVER.
I actually really like Will, which surprises me, because he annoyed the shit out of me in the first movie. He's a bit Luke Skywalker, isn't he? From whiny, naive, idealistic kid to brave, honorable, and capable hero is a classic character arc, and Orlando Bloom pulled it off well. Color me shocked.
As much as Norrington's storyline was dissatisfying and his death broke my heart, at least he had a totally badass death scene. Kiss the girl? Check. Heroic sacrifice? Check. Redemption? Check. Best last word ever? (Let us consider: "Do you fear death?" *stabs*) Check.
Maybe Kalypso will bring him back. That would be fun.
As for Elizabeth...I was going back to see other people's reviews, and something
taraljc said was interesting. She commented that "This story has always been Elizabeth's story, from the very first shot to the coda of Elizabeth waiting on the beach with her son for Will's day off." I'm trying to figure out what that story is. There's the love story between her and Will, and her adventures in piracy, but neither of those are it alone. I think it's just a more nebulous coming into her own--in love, in strength, and in independence. Of all the main characters, she most fully takes on responsibility. Will is left in limbo and Jack doesn't even understand the meaning of the word.Also, if the trilogy is her story (I'd thought about it more as a ensemble before), that makes the father thing less surprising. I was expecting Bootstrap to die, because the death of one's parent is necessary for the hero to realize his or her potential. It's a storytelling standard that is beyond ancient. (I talk about it a bit more here in regard to SPN. Huh, I totally called John's death, didn't I?) Anyway, so I was expecting Will's dad to die, because he most blatantly fits the hero role. But Will's dad doesn't die, and neither does Jack's father; Elizabeth is the one orphaned. I find that fascinating.
Surprisingly...I'm most ambiguous about Jack. He's still a great character played marvelously well by Mr. Depp, but...what's his story? In the first movie, he wants his ship back. In the second, he's completely indecisive about...something. Being honorable? I honestly can't remember. And in the third, he's afraid of death and trying to find a way out. He remains self-interested, devious, and disarmingly funny, with curious appearances of a sense of honor when he decides something matters to him. Actually, I take it back--he does make sense. I guess he's a bit like Peter Pan. It's like he sprang forth fully formed. It doesn't matter so much where he comes from, and he doesn't need a destination, it only matters that he exists. He's never going to change, but he'll have adventures forever--Peter as an eternal child, and Jack as an eternal sailor and lover of the sea. Alright. I'm okay with that.
Barbossa was totally badass. I love him, the crazy bastard. He made a pitch-perfect villain in the first movie, an excellent surprise at the end of the second, and a wickedly fun *cough* ally in the third. When he takes the helm in the maelstrom and starts shouting orders? Badass. Marrying Will and Elizabeth, as cheesy as that was, while kicking butt? Badass. Stealing Jack's ship out from under him (again)? Priceless. :D He made me happy, and was the most piratey thing onscreen in AWE.
I'm running out of steam. Does the coolness of the special effects need to be stated? Because they were cool.
Anyway, thoughts? Please disagree with me, I love that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-25 02:16 am (UTC)If I could disagree, I would, but everything you've said is totally, totally true. And I think the whole genre thing is exactly why many people weren't as happy with the sequels - and you've managed to articulate it.
:)
Jaydeyn
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-25 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-26 02:37 am (UTC)I had serious issues with the end - not only did it violate the freedom-principle of the pirate genre and stunt Elizabeth's character arc, but it didn't even fulfill the fantasy genre expectations. None of the characters ended up with what they wanted, and they didn't come to the end of their character arcs (Jack's still seeking death-prevention, Barbossa has the Pearl but lost the map, Will didn't really rescue his father, and Elizabeth can't have the guy she's been chasing for years). Plus, their victory over the armada was temporary at best - by setting up that as the central conflict, they were defeated by history. Arrgh.
That's another thing - I worked very hard to ignore the massive violations of time and space and basic physics, to middling success. Seriously, guys, it took A LONG TIME to travel at sea in that era, and it was not simple to zip across to the Pacific with fifty ships for a battle that wasn't even engaged.
Jack as Peter Pan is a lovely idea. It's not just the Athena-thing, either - Peter and Jack are both essentially self-interested. People may enter their lives, but they always leave again as the boys wander off on their own tangents.
I would have been happy with the romance's conclusion and Elizabeth waiting if there was any indication she had done something other than wait on an island and get pregnant. Bleh. I want my Pirate King Swann, damnit!
I may have more quest-stuff to talk about, but not now.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-29 10:32 pm (UTC)Agreed, also, on the end. There's a fine line between leaving enough looseness at the end to give a sense of "life-goes-on" without leaving actual loose ends, and they didn't quite get that right. I had a problem with the entire EITC plotline anyway, because there's no way to resolve that in a satisfactory way without thumbing your nose at history, and that doesn't work for me.
I am rather fond of Jack-as-Peter-Pan. It's that quality of being slightly inhuman despite their humanity, like they've distilled some particular essential bit.
I'm happy to just fill in the blanks for Elizabeth the way I want them (i.e., Pirate King Swann all the way). I don't think it's that hard to find canon support, although the other option is possible. Use your power of imagination for good, not evil, Katie! ;)