Pirates of the Caribbean: Past, Present & Future

[Deleted]

Well, rats, I missed Dame Judi . . . who was she?

[chitowngirl]

She was in the carriage when Jack was escaping the King. He jumped in a nuzzled in her neck. When he left, she said, "Is that it (or all)?"

[jynni]

Saw it twice last week and enjoyed it. Loved the mermaids and liked Penelope Cruz, although didn't really like her character's story. That said, it was like her character was everything Elizabeth Swan was supposed to be in the last two movies but Keira Knightly just couldn't pull it off. Actually, I'd like to go back to the first movie and digitally replace Zoe Saldana with Cruz - that would make for some continuity and would fix the only part of the first movie I dislike.

I did find myself missing Orlando Bloom. During the chase in London, I kept expecting to see Will pop up even though I knew he wasn't in the movie. Reverend Guy just wasn't an adequate replacement and his two giant rabbit teeth were distracting me. Which is why I guess they had him loose the shirt halfway through...and that was totally okay.

[Deleted]

Jun 1, 2011 17:03:59 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

If it makes you feel better, winkcat, the long shots of Angelica wasn't Penelope Cruz, but her sister.

Thanks for that, Chitowngirl!

The long coat didn't mask it that well

[sjankis630]

I went to see this this morning at my local theater. Pirates 4 that is.
Wow I hope you guys don't hate but I thought it was pretty bad and I wasn't expecting much.
Problems I see in no particular order:
1) at 2hrs 17 min it was about 30 min too long. Including the overlong beginning. Yes Dame Dench was funny but they could have given her a better piece and still trimmed it. Did we have to have 20 + minutes with the Mermaids? My god!
2) I know that Johnny Depp is the series, but I agree with what someone said on another board I frequent. Captain Jack Sparrow is much better as a "supporting character" than the lead. The other films had characters I cared about that Depp was in cahoots with. They are all gone. As a matter of fact Jack's entire crew is missing save for the "sideburns" dude who is padding his retirement with this single series. Depp is finer when he is on the fringes with you waiting to see what he is up to, not front and center the whole movie where even he tends to drag at times. Keep it fresh people!
3) Penelope Cruz, who I know is a great actress because I have seen her in much better, sounded stilted and wooden as if this were here first English film. There were shades of the Guvernator in some of her speeches. Beautiful, yes, English not so much.
4) Why do they think we need more than one baddie? In the first one it was Barbarossa and it worked well. This time should have been Blackbeard, but no we have killer mermaids, Blackbeard, bumbling British, and the Spanish who it seemed were added as a plot point at the end IMHO.
5) What happened to the comedy? I chuckled exactly 2 times and that is not much. I looked at my watch, however, about 4 times in the first interminable hour.
Don't hate me I went to see the first one 2x in the theater and bought the DVD. It was a tight, funny, engrossing, neat adventure. This last one comes off as a strict money grab, and although that is what all sequels are, they could have at least not made it so... boring....
/rant ended.
Now something nice about the movie. Some of the locations were breathtaking. I was appreciative of seeing the jungle scenes in the theater because there is no way even a Bluray could have done that justice.
Also, even though I think they got entirely too much time onscreen, mermaids are some tough chicks.

[huntergrayson]

Did anyone else see this in 3D and think that the night scenes were INCREDIBLY dim and murky?

I know they're not well-liked but I definitely thought this was missing something without Keira and Orlando. Priest guy was hot but not an acceptable substitute. And, frankly, the whole "man of faith"/heavy love story on his shoulders was too much for a new character that the audience doesn't yet care about. Penelope's character was *written* well but, yeah, learn English, hon. Or just always have her subtitled.

The scenery was gorgeous and I liked the evil mermaids as a twist.

Ian McShane, as always, rules, but there was not nearly enough of him.

The best part of this? I saw it at Disney's El Capitan and therefore got my own (fake) pieces of 8.

[Atreides]

Yeah, the main problem with 3D films is that they are darker than their 2D versions. I think this problem is exacerbated with movies that weren't even filmed in 3D to begin with, like this one.

[Binky]

Pirates 4 WAS filmed in 3D, I believe.

That said, the 3D added absolutely nothing and was only an excuse to up the ticket price, IMO.

[huntergrayson]

Atreides, did you see the recent article about how the AMC chain is being so shoddy that they aren't changing the lenses from 3D to 2D digital projections, so even films in 2D are now having an up to 80% loss of light?

[Atreides]

Sorry, Binky. You are right that this was actually filmed in 3D (although the effects were done in 2D and later converted). I was thinking about another movie. Pretty much everyone is saying though that the 3D in Pirates is horribly done. The upcoming Transformers is apparently spectacular in 3D though, from all accounts.

I just read that article hunter. Damn, I hope I'm not the victim of that any time soon!