See full version: Ranking the POTC Films
It's "On Stranger Tides" done better. Going after an artifact like Indiana Jones. I like the flashback scene a lot. Salazar is the scariest villain in the series for me. I like the scenery. I like the action. The new characters are ok. Jack, however, is not as funny as he used to be. more
It takes too long to get to the interesting part (the maelstrom). I didn't care about Sao Feng. Davy Jones' Locker was not interesting at all. Calypso's FINAL FORM.. disappointing. more
2. COTBP nice film very pirate esque film. great introduction to the franchise Jack & Barbossa were the standouts. [links]
4) Curse of the Black Pearl :
I like the plot of this movie. Treasure hunting with Jack and Barbossa as the protagonists. Blackbeard might not be the best villain in the series but he looks the coolest. His death is also the most gruesome thing we've seen so far (Mercer's death is also disgusting). My main problem is that it is too dark. Did they forget to turn on the lights? I can't see what's going on!
3. AWE- Epic set pieces and lots of action throughout decent end to a trilogy, movie wouldn't have suffered as much if the runtime wasn't long but I enjoyed it for what it was. here
83. "Our destinies have been entwined, Elizabeth, but never joined."
23. "Captain, I wish to report a mutiny. I can name fingers and point names."
51. "You didn't beat me. You ignored the rules of engagement! In a fair fight, I'd kill you!" here
19. "Sometimes things come back, mate. We're living proof, you and me."
40. "Aye, 'tis. And when we find the scurvy blackguard responsible, he can apologize to me little Polly personally, in Davy Jones's locker." more
66. "The other ships will still be looking to us, to the Black Pearl, to lead, and what will they see? Frightened bilgerats aboard a derelict ship?" [links]
One of the reasons for the first film’s success is that it took the classic Hero’s Journey and told it again in a new way. People like seeing what they already saw if it is given in a new, original way, and Pirates of the Caribbean succeeded in doing this.
The first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is the best film of the entire series. The originality, the pacing of the story and action, Depp’s performance, the humor, pretty much everything was pitch-perfect and came out of nowhere to catch audiences by surprise.
Surprisingly: YES. I watched the first movie and could barely make it through. I started watching the second movie and had to turn it off; I hated it just that much. I never bothered with the third. here
Franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean
The action sequences are always well-staged and very entertaining. You will also notice visual gags which are essential in movies that rely on comedy a lot too. Action is also an integral part of the story and it is never too tiresome, so you will always feel like it is just the way it is supposed to be. more
However, Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is under production without Johnny Depp. We earlier reported that Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites, and Kevin McNally are returning in Pirates of the Caribbean 6. Pirates of the Caribbean 6 doesn’t yet have an official release date. [links]
Amongst Hayao Miyazaki’s long line of masterworks is this early sensation. After young Sheeta, voiced by Keiko Yokozawa, is taken by a band of governmental agents on a huge flying ship, she’s intercepted by a cadre of air pirates, led by the great Captain Dola (Kotoe Hatsui), in search of treasures. In the ensuing skirmish, Sheeta both realizes the immense power of her beloved amulet and escapes to partner with Pazu, a young man from a nearby mining town, to figure out why the agents want her powers. Miyazaki’s animation style, his expressive yet unflashy use of color, and brilliant character design are enough to marvel at on their own but he brings the firepower as well. Castle in the Sky features some of his best action sequences, in the same exalted realms of Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises, and when Sheeta and Puza team with Dola, one can feel the youthful promise of outlaw life rekindled for a moment. If The Princess Bride buttressed its sense of adventure with romantic love, Castle in the Sky sees the adventurism of pirate life as a gateway to independence and self-knowledge, separated from the task of finding someone you love romantically. Indeed, the excellence of Miyazaki’s first big domestic hit is in its ability to engender a feeling of leadership without ego, cooperation without the oft-sought compromise of the individual. [links]
This isn’t exactly a swashbuckler but deserves its place here nonetheless. Fritz Lang’s surprisingly thoughtful adventure film focuses on young John Mohune (John Whitely), who arrives in the titular village in Dorset in search of his lineage and a place to live after his mother’s untimely passing. What he finds is a bloodline entangled with rampant, violent piracy and murder, and ends up partnering with Stewart Granger’s Fox, a smuggler and pirate by trade, to track down a fabled diamond in a nearby castle. The familiar kicker is that Fox may very well be young Mohune’s father and this only further highlights Lang’s unsentimental yet highly perceptive depiction of parenting, legacy, and fate. Young Mohune could very easily become as craven and capable of murder as Fox without direction, but even in his detached way, Fox helps point him toward a more rewarding path. He’s also, of course, a symbol of the mythological fathers that many abandoned boys found in fantasy and adventure novels and Lang is smart to slightly subvert the happy ending that seems inevitable throughout. That Moonfleet still plays very well as a kids movie, over 60 years after its initial release, should say all that needs to be said about the importance of having a director of vision at the helm of any movie, no matter the constraints of genre. [links]
One of the more understandable joys of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is that it does in fact feel like a bigger, better version of the ride. The audience is plunged into a world where death doesn’t really exist in any tangible way, treasure and rum are available along with (and often in lieu of) glory, squid monsters and ghosts call for your blood, and you get to stick it to those shithead trading companies. Sure, Gore Verbinski and his creative team can throw in a romance plot for the unknown masses that demand it, but the hook of the movies is in the crafting and deploying of elaborate yet basic thrills via a litany of technological wizardry. There are people out there who will and often do defend the movie in other, more serious terms of dramatic substance and rebellious spirits. A select few of them have driving permits.
In adapting William Goldman’s fantastical novel, Rob Reiner was blessed with a script by Goldman himself, which gave the filmmaker the perfect blueprint for his fantasy world of pirates, giants, swordsmen, trolls, and princesses. To underline the theatrical world of Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) and Westley (Cary Elwes), Goldman and Reiner open the movie with a framing device that allows a reflection of the adaptation process, skipping over parts and omitting other bits along the way. Still, it’s the power of Reiner’s vision – words I’ve never written before – that gives the film genuine life. He paints the life of a pirate as pure wondrous romance and treats death as a constantly alluring gamble rather than a serious conclusion to life. There’s no grave, mortal stakes to The Princess Bride the way that Pirates of the Caribbean insists that there is a real point to be made underneath the layers of nonsense. Rather than overburdening itself with rigid morality, The Princess Bride flies freely under the wings of pure invention, thanks to Reiner’s seemingly effortless ability to shape a world of dazzling images and characters of engaging, even moving depth. more
Pirates of the Caribbean occasionally makes allusions to the darker side of the life of pirating but every time it looks like Jack Sparrow has truly dicked somebody (or some thing) over, it’s revealed that he was playing the long con or that some celestial being has conspired for him to pay his moral debt in some all-important way. This tactic makes for plenty of good vibes and the veneer of a “darker tone” but the movies themselves suffer from tonal imbalance, a tonnage of backstory, and explanatory dialogue. They also require patience for Johnny Depp’s faux-drunk chicanery that evaporated from my being around the time the first Arcade Fire record came out.