the ramble dump

Last night I saw At World's End. I liked it. Now that I've seen all three films, I thought I'd post a big, fat review of the trilogy as a whole.

To start with, the reason I like all the Pirates films is because they're complete escapism. This is seen by some as exactly what's wrong with them: they're empty of anything but silliness and special effects. But other than the above being well executed, there's something else that made the films so enjoyable for me, and that is that underlying all three films is the aspect of pure storytelling.

Curses, krakens and sea goddesses are all fantastical ideas; they're not especially original coming from the pens of the filmmakers, but are all based on myths and legends that have in the past been the kind of thing that the minds of men have conjured up and convinced themselves of while on such boaty voyages, whether founded on superstition, or to add some mystery or romance to their lives, or just because they liked a good story as much as we do. It might all be imaginative nonsense (why can Davy Jones, for example, only set foot on land every ten years? No reason other than to create a plot device for the story and tragic circumstances for the character). But we can still find ourselves immersed. The film embraces all this kind of thing, while at the same time, through characters like Mr Gibbs, lightly poking fun at the tendency for superstition and melodrama and never taking itself too seriously. There might be no real moral or any direct relevance or usefulness, but irrespective of this, the Pirates films demonstrate with vigour the power and the charm of a good story.

That's not to say that the films were all perfect, but I thought they were all pretty damn good. Here's a breakdown of each:

The Curse of the Black Pearl, by virtue of being the first, is probably the most well-rounded and well-balanced of the three films. It's got equal measures of action, adventure, comedy and romance, and it doesn't suffer from the filmmakers deciding to shovel in overthetop amounts of everything we liked best. It manages to be epic and sprawling without being convoluted, and as a whole is probably the best one.

Dead Man's Chest lives up to the first in most respects. The action is satisfying when it comes around. There's a feeling of a lack of direction when the main story pauses for the characters to engage in hilarious hijinks with cannibals or big rolling wheels; the slapstick is almost overbearing at times and some of the humour seems a bit forced, but it's never unbearable and remains mostly entertaining, if a bit overindulgent. As the series of multiple endings shows, a lot of it is just setting up the next film, but it has enough story to be satisfying in its own right.

At World's End was, to me, an excellent final instalment. It provides at least some sort of conclusion for every story so far presented in the trilogy while still having enough that's fresh. This definitely made it complicated at times, but it never felt overly convoluted like some of the Dead Man segments. I just about managed to follow the constant switching of allegiances, which wasn't so much confusing in itself as made harder to follow by the fact that it happens in such rapid succession.

The film gets off to an uncertain start with the whole getting Jack back stuff, and while having multiple Jacks was mildly entertaining (and I liked it when they made a reappearance later on), the problem with trying to be weird and surreal is that it can easily become tedious and unfunny. A bit like being stuck in a room with someone going, 'Lol, I'm so random!' One Jack chickening his way across the deck has to be the worst and most obvious example of this. After that, however, it quickly improves, and the epic battle scenes at the end more than make up for previous shortcomings. I mean like, woah. I thought that how the stage was set with Calypso's maelstrom of uncertainty was cleverly done. Overall, the tone was surprisingly dark at times, with some pretty graphic violence in Singapore, and later Mercer's horrific yet utterly satisfying end with his facial orifices being invaded by tentacles. The films have always had a darker edge to them (or, as Jack says to Tia Dalma, 'an agreeable sense of the macabre'), but At World's End seemed to take it one step further.

For the most part, I think the sequels do add to the franchise, and all in all, I thought At World's End was a satisfying ending to a very satisfying trilogy.

Labels: films, i am the ramblemaster, pirates, rabbit-hole theory

# posted by Chris @ 12:08 PM