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Topic: Pirates: At World's End MOVIE/SCORE IN MOVIE
sean
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MOVIE [NO SPOILERS]:Its no surprise: This movie is a mess, like Dead Man's Chest. Great moments in this film are few and far between; the "Up Is Down" sequence is a standout and is actually pretty cool (that tilting camera: Nice!), but the film never gets that good again. There are some cool shots, like the high angle looking down at the ripples in the water from the pirate ship with the starfield reflected in the water. And there's no Kraken payoff! I'm not sure if its the script, the director, Jerry Bruckheimer, or the director-the script-and-Jerry Bruckheimer, but it seems like there's a general confusion on how to make all the disparate elements of the Pirates storyline flow: Like a movie with all the unwanted deleted scenes included, and including an after-the-end-credits ridiculous Fabio-like scene that will have you in stiches at its idiocy. Didn't hate the movie and it was far from confusing, as I understand some critics think, yet At World's End isn't without its pluses (the bad parts, though, outnumber the good sections).
SCORE IN MOVIE:
Of course, the music is mixed badly and isn't upfront for almost the entire movie, save for a few shots of the ship sailing using the "World's End" theme and the Ennio Morricone tribute piece, "Parlay" (this acts more as parody [it isn't supposed to] and sounds nowhere as great as it does on its own; the Pirates crew just aren't near the level of coolness that Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda are! Simple as that!). "Up Is Down" is perfect for its scene, but yet again, is mixed too low for any relevance. The bad mix reminds me of how Hans Zimmer's excellent score to Da Vinci Code was dialed down to in that feature; yet that film contained an almost entirely different score than what ended up on the concert-like CD, and Da Vinci Code the film was stupid itself. Anyway, them's the breaks; I think its a great score on disc and should have been given an upfront mix for the picture (yet, in another way, it doesn't even matter because the film itself doesn't deserve the score it got, as per usual with the mediocre films Zimmer tackles). Also, the maelstrom battle at the end mainly seems to use a great deal recycled action music from the first Pirates film, so the 10-minute "I Don't Think Now Is The Best Time" is at perfect length on disc and contains the best action music from the movie (and of all 3 films, IMO, except for that wicked Kraken piece from number 2!).
[Message edited by sean on 05-25-2007]
posted 05-25-2007 04:54 PM PT (US) sean
Standard Userer
nuts, your essay is late ... 50% deduction from your final mark! Michael posted his review in the wrong thread for unspecified and dangerous reasons. And don't try and convince me that Pirates is The Empire Strikes Back again! HA!
posted 06-12-2007 07:25 PM PT (US) franz_conrad
Standard Userer
To appease Sean, I shall re-post here:quote:
Well, I've seen the film now.
Firstly, liked it more than the second...
Secondly, didn't like it as much as the first.Pros:
- Depp wins my amusement 9.5 times out 10 - only the 'multiple jacks' in the brig scene played to the cheap seats a bit too much
- Great to see Rush back. They could have done some more with him, but having him there was enough.
- Sao Feng is another strong addition, though I wish he hadn't been dispatched so quickly.
- Quite a moving ending for Elizabeth and Will, even though the idea of Orlando Bloom kissing the legs of Keira's stunt double caused me more amusement than anything else.
- Good ending with Jack and Barbossa.
- Great to see the dog escaped the cannibals. (Though perhaps the film could have cut 20 of the 60 gratuitous references to smaller plot issues in the two earlier films - it might have corrected that overlength by a sensible 15 minutes...? In general people do not have a good memory like me.)
- The Wedding Sequence - nice bit of editing there.
- Special effects all around... the maelstrom and sinking of the Endeavor stand out as sequences.
- Limbo and the Crabs.
- Quite a macabre humourous opening scene with shuffling pirates providing rhythm to the song.
- Up is Down.Con:
- Why do they always assume bigness of everything else the most important ingredient in a sequel?
- Considers itself very important. There's not the same flippancy as we encountered in the first film. E.g. Elizabeth's 'What shall we die for?' speech. In the first film, Barbossa/Jack/Gibbs or somebody would have undercut the urgency of the plea with some remark that appealed to baser pirate instincts, yet still prompted them to do the right thing. That anarchist spirit didn't show up to set that often on this film - and since it's the main contributor to the first film's classic status, it's an unfortunate absence.
- Why anyone trusts anyone to keep to an agreement is beyond me.... and I know that's part of the point - but Barbossa shouldn't be surprised when Calypso doesn't keep her agreement.
- Perhaps in accompaniment to the last point- when things like 'Accord' and 'Parlay' were called in the first film, they often initiated hilarious spats on the meaning and spirit of the Pirate code... Somehow the many references to the 'Brethren Court' in this film don't quite add up to the same thing.
- Does Elizabeth earn immortality by virtue of being the wife of Will? Because she didn't look ten years older, and my mind had to imagine whether the eternally youthful Will would continuing paying the visit in 60 years or so...
- A lot of indoor scenes in this film or studio indoor scenes, and also at-sea scenes. Perhaps a few more on-land real locations wouldn't have hurt things? For some reason I felt like I was in an environment that was a lot affected and claustrophobic than in either of the previous films.
- Do we have to cut to every one of the Pirate Lords every time they're close to battle? I think shots of Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth and Jack would have sufficed at the end of the big battle...
- ... speaking of all those other pirate lords and the battle - What exactly were all the other ships doing while the Black Pearl and the Dutchman were at battle? Once the Dutchman has sunk, it looks like there are some columns of smoke on the horizon suggestive of combat, but ensuing establishing shots correct the impression by showing all those other boats at exactly their positions at the start of the battle?
- Perhaps a good point to raise another continuity issue - how many cannons does the bloody Black Pearl have? They easily lost a few when they left the 'locker', and even if we assume that they replaced them at Shipwreck Cove, over half their emplacements were blasted out in the maelstrom with the Dutchman? (That ship lost a few guns as well, as well as 250% of its sailors.) Yet when Sparrow calls fire on Beckett's flagship, the guns are all back in place... Unfortunately this is one of many noticable signs of disposable narrative continuity... perhaps we can blame the scripts unorthodox inception for that?
- Action Scenes mean Cutting Quicker than the Eye - whenever they needed to switch everyone's positions around, an action scene ensues in which all traceable continuity goes to blazes... consider the visual chaos at Sao Feng's hideout. That's not good action direction - that's flashing images by quickly enough to move the props and characters around.
- Logical - when betrayals run out of good reasons! - Why did Will Turner need the Black Pearl to get his father back again? Seems like any ship would have done if that was all it was about.Ugly
- The critical reaction to this film. Why are critics so baffled by a plot when the movie bores them? Why not just come out with the real reason for not liking it?3 to 3.5 out of 5
Overall, I enjoyed it, but the cracks are showing.
And my later remarks on the score:
quote:
Music was quite good throughout. The only bits that really annoyed me were:
- 'What shall we die for' - owing to the absence of snide pirate logic in counterpoint to Keira's earnest speech
- the first half of 'One Day' - because they were cutting again to every one of the pirate lords...
- 'Parlay' - the wrong kind of humour for this film. That's a SHREK kind of joke - ripping off a sequence from another film so that people will have fun recognising it. Admittedly they're ripping off a much better film here, but it's the sort of thing you put on the DVD, not the three hour film.
BTW - if the writers think Orlando is freed because Keira is still on the island, they should have put it in the bloody movie.
posted 06-12-2007 07:51 PM PT (US) sean
Standard Userer
I was kidding, no worries! I'm not that full of myself: why is no one responding to my thread!? LOL!
posted 06-12-2007 09:31 PM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB