Argh, welcome back aboard the SS Fluttershy, you bilge rats. And today, we conclude our review of the Pirates trilogy by looking at the third and final film. The fourth film never happened , even if this captain may have referenced earlier this week. Let's sail on this voyage to bring back Captain Jack from the depths below.
The Plot
We open on Port Royal, where pirates and those who sympathize with these pirates are being hanged and let's get the elephant out of the room, right now. I understand that a lot of people consider this scene pretty dark, well, then they should see Maleficent, which has a scene that is basically an allegory for rape but done tastefully. Anyways, back to this film, I would say that yes, this scene is dark but it's important in setting up that the pirates that we have followed throughout the first two films are fighting a battle that they are currently losing and the stake couldn't be higher for them because if they lose, more of their kind will face death and as we saw, it doesn't matter the age, they are. If you were a pirate or someone that stood by their cause, you would be hanged and just shows how cruel, a man Cutler Beckett is. He has no sympathy for anyone.
Meanwhile in Singapore, Miss Swann is rowing through singing verses of the song that was being sung by the pirates as they were hung. The song being "Hoist The Colors". And then she is then informed that it be dangerous for her to be singing that song and even more dangerous for her to be alone but she's revealed to be in good company as she with Barbossa . And with this, the men that confronted Swann lead her and Barbosaa are led to a bathhouse that is presided over by pirate lord, Sao Feng.
Eh, he doesn't look that tough and looks rather friendly even. Oh, wait you mean that's not the real Sao Feng. Now can this be? Ah, here we go.
Oh, that makes more sense. yeah he looks a lot tougher here. Our lead characters are forced to removed their weapons, they meet with Sao Feng and questions why they want his navigational charts as someone had attempted earlier that day to steal them and the thief is being held in the bathhouse and it's revealed that the thief is Will Turner.
Man, Will can't catch a break, can he? Feng makes way to go and kill him, and this gets Elizabeth to reveal her connection to him. At this, Barbossa takes charge and reminds Sao Feng that the song has been sung.and that all pirate lords , which include are Feng are bound to meet at Shipwreck Cove. Barbossa tells him that he needs the charts to go to World's End to rescue Jack Sparrow and Feng is none too pleased to hear this name as he holds a grudge against Sparrow. Who doesn't in this franchise? Things only get worse as the crew that are hiding below the floor boards toss the heroes, weapons. Welp, it was only a matter of time before a fight occurred, after all this is a Pirates movie and you can't have one of these without some type of fight happening. during this standoff, Feng notices that there is a man that has a fake tattoo and Barbossa says that he is not with them and at that moment led by Mercer, the East India Trading Company. Meanwhile, Mercer overhears a conservation between Feng and Will as Will will attempt to spare Feng from Beckett in trade for the command of the Black Pearl and Feng gives him the charts and lends Barbossa , ship, the Hai Peng.
We will touch on this more later, but we then see that the Dutchman now under the command of Beckett lay siege to a pirate fleet and see on the Dutchman that Norrington is reunited with his sword and Tia Dalma is explaining to our crew, that Sparrow has not been sent to a place of death but rather a place of punishment. And we also learn that Beckett plans to kill Governor Swann as he no longer needs his aide. And okay, we get to the weirdest moment from this franchise, Jack in Davy Jones' Locker suffering hallucinations and seeing multiple Jack Sparrow's.
Yeah, this film had a lot of strange moments in regards to Jack with the multiple Jack's, I think I kinda get what they were going for, here in this scene as they were attempting to show that Jack's time in Davy Jones' Locker had driven him crazy and we see that he cannot take command of them and then he starts to see a bunch of white crabs that start carrying The Black Pearl. Okay, wait what?
No, hold on....
Just huh? I really don't get this, it's just weird and seems outta place for a Pirates film. What was the purpose of the crabs? This scene just really doesn't make sense and it's never mentioned again. The crew make it to the World's End but they also lose the Hai Peng in the process and there, Jack is reunited with his crew and heat first takes these to be hallucinations, as well until he comes across the woman that had left him for dead: Elizabeth Swann and here, he reveals to Will, that Elizabeth had betrayed him. And he doesn't want any of them to be a part of his crew but his compass is useless in the locker and they need the chart, that is in Barbossa's possession . So, they set sail across with Sparrow and Barbossa fighting over, who should be captain.
Yeah, that seems about right.
While Will and Elizabeth have a heart to heart as she reveals that she was not in love with Jack but she still feels guilty about leaving Jack to the kraken. Will, still finds himself to trust the woman that he loves. And this seems to parallel what happened between Davy Jones and Calypso. And at this moment, we see Governor Swann had died and Elizabeth tries to bring him aboard to no avail and he informs them that if were one to stab the heart that is held in Dead Man's Chest, one must replace it.
And even though Elizabeth, attempts to bring him aboard, Tia Dalma tells him that he is now at peace. It has been weeks later and Jack is still going mad and the water and rum is gone.
Jack then deciphers the charts and learns that it says that "Up Is Down" and starts getting the crew to rock the ship to turn it upside down and return to the land of the living after turning the ship upside down.
Well, at least that made a bit more sense than the crabs and then, the crew pulls out their guns on one another.
This is when Barbossa informs Jack that the Brethren Court have been called to convene at Shipwreck Cove but Jack has no intention of going there as he plans to take control of the Dutchman himself after killing Jones. Well, that shouldn't be too hard. Then again, it might be a bit of a challenge. And after this, Will discovers a fresh spring and there, they discover the corpse of the kraken.
And one of Feng's men turns on Jack as Feng's ship, the Empress is seen off-shore and they taken aboard the Pearl and Feng informs him that an "old friend" wishes to speak to Sparrow and we later see, a conservation between Beckett and Sparrow and directs his attention to the Endeavor.
And here again, we are reminded that Jones still wants his debt settled. And meanwhile on The Pearl, Mercer takes it for the EIC and we learn that just about everyone is interested in Swann and wants but she goes with Feng and we also get to see a new captain emerge as she is appointed to be Feng's successor after the death of Feng, she becomes the new captain of the Empress and we later see her come across Norrington and you get a taste of what could've been between these two as they share a kiss before he dies aboard the Dutchman and yes, this is after, Elizabeth comes across Bootstrap.
I'll be honest and say that Norrington's death was a really tragic moment because Norrington, just too late had realized that he was fighting on the wrong side and occurs because Bootstrap was trying to save Elizabeth, who he had met earlier in the film and didn't know what was happening and of course, we get the usual offering from Jones to join his crew but Norrington is a man not afraid of death and throws his sword at him and Jones keeps it for himself assuming that the Dutchman is under his command again but that is not the case as Mercer is now in command of the Dutchman as Mercer had taken the key to the chest. Sometime later, we see The Pearl arrive at Shipwreck Island.
And here , Barbossa orders Tia Dalma to be locked up and put in the brig. And we also see a conservation between, Turner, Jones and Beckett, where Will reveals that Jack has continually survived and Beckett brings Calypso, Jones' former love and this sets Jones off. And kinda pissed that the court plans to release her. Dude, you weren't the only one that was unhappy with that sequence.
Barbossa opens the meeting of the Pirate Lords by asking the Brethren Court to offer up their pieces of eight, which in actuality are nothing more than junk and here Elizabeth tells them of Sao Feng's death and how she has been appointed as his successor but no one takes her seriously nor her warning about the arrival of the Dutchman.
And Barbossa mentions his plan to unleash Calypso. The Lords are against this. Personally, I don't see a problem, that's one of John Denver's best songs. Oh, not that Calypso but yeah, this is better than what happened with that sequence in the movie. Meanwhile, aboard The Pearl, we get a rather touching moment between Jones and Tia Dalma, where she promises to give him his heart, once she is freed and turn against the Brethren Court. Does that make her an antagonist now? And this is after, a brief moment, she reverts Jones to his human form.
Meanwhile back at the Court, the pirates continue this squabbling but Elizabeth but stop to listen to a rambling monologue by Captain Jack as he agrees with Elizabeth that the pirates must fight. He also points out that Calypso may not be too friendly to the pirates and they may kill each other. And Barbossa reminds his fellow pirates that only the Pirate King can pass a declaration of war but there has not bee one for year and Barbossa calls upon Captain Teague, the keeper of the code to confirm this and he does.
And as some of you may recall, one of Depp's inspirations for Jack Sparrow was Keith Richards and well, here he is in the third Pirates film. I'm not sure how I feel about this as it was just nothing more than a quick cameo. Captain Sparrow calls for a vote and all of the lords vote for themselves until Jack's second vote for Elizabeth. Thus making her the new Pirate King.
And we get a brief reunion between Teague & Sparrow, where we learn that he is Jack's father. The pirates prepare to fight and Elizabeth tells them to hoist the colors. Soon, Will arrives on The Dutchman only to be in a duel with his father and Jones sees this and takes this as an opportunity to bring Will aboard as member asking him, if he's afraid of death and Sparrow and comes and saves the day and asks, if he is.
Something like that, but it looked more like this.
And Jack gets the chest and this allows time to Jack to help stab the heart, killing Jones but the Dutchman must always have a captain and well, Will is made the new captain of the ship.
Elizabeth is heartbroken thinking her newly married husband is dead but he emerges from the sea with the crew of the Dutchman having reverted back to their human forms. But it does end well for everyone as Beckett has lost and the pirates are shooting at the Queen Ann's Revenge as he goes down with the ship. We later get a tease about a voyage to find the fountain of youth. Shame, that never happened. In the epilogue, we cut to ten years later and see Elizabeth with her son, awaiting the arrival of Will and he does and they can now be together as a family.
Let's be clear on one thing, this is a film filled with a lot of problems but it has it's share of good moments sprinkled throughout the movie. And seeing as I don't want to spend any longer than I have to on this review, let's get right into the characters.
Characters
Main Characters
Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp
I'll be honest and say that Jack kinda left me bored in this film. It felt like they were trying to up the wackiness of Captain Jack to nth degree, while all of the other characters remained somewhat grounded. I mean, Jack has always been a bit of a cartoon character but in this film, it felt like he might as well have been on Cartoon Network. Jack was sadly, the weakest part of this film and that's a shame as he is a good character that may have became too popular for his own good to the point of overshadowing the rest of the cast and not giving them, equal footing. This film was basically Captain Jack and Friends.
Elizabeth Swann played by Keira Knightley
On the other hand, this film seemed to set out what the writers had intended as they had always envisioned Elizabeth as the lead character and in that regard, this film brings her story to a close and we see how far , she has come since the first film. Elizabeth had always been a strong character but by the third film, we see fully embrace her inner strength and show that she can hold her own.
Will Turner played Orlando Bloom
Does Will always get the short end of the stick in these films? I mean, sure compared to Jack, he's a nice guy but he's a nice guy that isn't afraid to play dirty and do whatever it takes to protect his family such as making the deal to save his father or protect Elizabeth.
Hector Barbossa played by Geoffrey Rush
This film had a difficult task of turning, the main villain from the first film into one of the main protagonists and did it succeed? Hmm, well, yes and no. Geoffrey Rush is still great in this role but he's just not as fun as a good guy.
Supporting Characters
Sao Feng played by Chow Yun-fat
What was the point of this character? Did the film really need him? I don't think so, he's not that memorable of a character as really, he's just there, so our main pirates can get the chart from him and then die, later on in the film. That's pretty much it.
Bootstrap Bill played by Stellan Skarsgard
I still liked Bootstrap in this film and getting to see him be freed from the curse was touching as was the moments between him and Elizabeth but he wasn't enough to save this film.
James Norrington played by Jack Davenport
Honestly, through re-watching these three films, Norrington has stood out as the best character in the trilogy. Sure, in the first film, he wasn't much but in 2 & 3, he had the best arc as a man that had lost everything and is trying to put his life back together, at any cost.
Tia Dalma/Calypso played by Naiome Harris
This film could've made Tia Dalma , an interesting character with the Calyspo idea but it was presented so poorly, that it just felt convoluted and confusing and knowing that she didn't wait for Davy Jones, kinda makes her a little unlikable to me.
Villains
Davy Jones played by Bill Nighy
This film surprisingly made Jones, a bit sympathetic as you could understand why he had been driven mad and why he curses, the name of his former lover.
Cutler Beckett played by Tom Hollander
This film just went on to show how ruthless and cold, Beckett is and how we will stop at nothing to win and get his way. Need I remind you that we wasn't above hanging children. This film easily shows that he is the most despicable POTC baddie and yet, everyone wants to talk about Jones and Barbossa and while their great, their acts of villainy are nowhere near the level of Beckett's.
My Final Thoughts
I hesitate to say that this film is bad or good. It's a mixed bag of good moments and bad moments. But out of the original three, it's the weakest but having said that, it wraps up the story that was set in motion in the second movie. And in that regard, it does a nice job. Well, it's time to leave the Caribbean and head towards...
The Second Star To The Right as I take a look at Peter Pan covers.
No comments:
Post a Comment