PotC: On Stranger Tides
May. 23rd, 2011 14:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Dir. Rob Marshall, 2011.
The book is racist, sexist, fat-phobic, and terrible, but the movie is pretty fun.
I enjoyed it quite a lot, actually, and I disagree with The New York Times review, which attempted to blame the movie's being not as good as the first three on the director, Rob Marshall. Now, I actually enjoyed Chicago, and very clearly the movie's problems were not the fault of the direction but of the script. One problem with the quest narrative of this one is that unlike the other characters who've served as quest-objects in previous movies, the Fountain can't make sarcastic remarks. In general, the writing didn't snap quite the way it did in the first and third movies in particular, but I enjoyed the movie all the same--contrary to what the carping of The New York Times review led me to believe, there is plenty of supernatural stuff in this movie, starting with Blackbeard. I also thought Angelica was decently organic to the story and not a doormat like the female lead in the book, so that was a win. A pirate woman! I can get behind that. I was also interested that this movie made clear the time period of the previous three, by going on about G R II so much. And I give it points for an interesting use of the "Spanish = Catholics" trope.
I've always had a huge soft spot for Barbossa, conniving bastard though he is, and for Jack and Gibbs of course, so I enjoyed the eventual denouement for all three of them. (En passant: did the Fountain come from Atlantis, based on the mosaic fragments from the floor of the "pagan temple"?) As far as I can tell, the only things the movie used from the Powers book were the weird physics at the Fountain (thankfully they cut the pretentious ranting about quantum mechanics) and the whole Fountain concept, and the cleric character, albeit indirectly. Also, rather than him getting eaten it was my impression that he became a merman. How else do they reproduce, after all?
I'm actually kind of disappointed in myself that it took me so long to realize that the last third of the movie is actually remaking Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Because, seriously, it totally is.
So, yes, will happily buy the DVD and go see Pirates 5, though I'm not quite burning with desire to rewatch this one in the theaters.
The book is racist, sexist, fat-phobic, and terrible, but the movie is pretty fun.
I enjoyed it quite a lot, actually, and I disagree with The New York Times review, which attempted to blame the movie's being not as good as the first three on the director, Rob Marshall. Now, I actually enjoyed Chicago, and very clearly the movie's problems were not the fault of the direction but of the script. One problem with the quest narrative of this one is that unlike the other characters who've served as quest-objects in previous movies, the Fountain can't make sarcastic remarks. In general, the writing didn't snap quite the way it did in the first and third movies in particular, but I enjoyed the movie all the same--contrary to what the carping of The New York Times review led me to believe, there is plenty of supernatural stuff in this movie, starting with Blackbeard. I also thought Angelica was decently organic to the story and not a doormat like the female lead in the book, so that was a win. A pirate woman! I can get behind that. I was also interested that this movie made clear the time period of the previous three, by going on about G R II so much. And I give it points for an interesting use of the "Spanish = Catholics" trope.
I've always had a huge soft spot for Barbossa, conniving bastard though he is, and for Jack and Gibbs of course, so I enjoyed the eventual denouement for all three of them. (En passant: did the Fountain come from Atlantis, based on the mosaic fragments from the floor of the "pagan temple"?) As far as I can tell, the only things the movie used from the Powers book were the weird physics at the Fountain (thankfully they cut the pretentious ranting about quantum mechanics) and the whole Fountain concept, and the cleric character, albeit indirectly. Also, rather than him getting eaten it was my impression that he became a merman. How else do they reproduce, after all?
I'm actually kind of disappointed in myself that it took me so long to realize that the last third of the movie is actually remaking Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Because, seriously, it totally is.
So, yes, will happily buy the DVD and go see Pirates 5, though I'm not quite burning with desire to rewatch this one in the theaters.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-23 19:45 (UTC)