POTC: On Stranger Tides 'n stuff.

I know I haven't been very vocal about my Pirates of the Caribbean fandom, but believe me, there is mad, latent love for the Sparrow in these twisted brains of mine! He will forever be one of Johnny Depp's most memorable characters in one of the most unique franchises. Unlike the over-used medieval war themed movies, or special effects bombarded superhero ones, pirates' themes are rarely focused on. I very much enjoy both the historical references as well as the myth and legends that appear in these movies. Granted, they DO have explosion and action of sorts, but it's not everyday we get to see the Kraken devour an entire ship and see it brought back from the Locker almost intact.

From what I've read here and there, there is a general consensus that Curse of the Black Pearl is the most successful story of all movies, because it introduced the characters, set up the world, the tone and took the story from beginning to conclusion in an easy to follow, single strand. It was so well done, that even 8 years later, people still seem to think none of the sequels live up to it's predecessor.  

I never dragged my ass to see the first one in theaters because, well, it was based off a ride. Really? A ride? REEEAAAALLLYY??? A ride which, btw, most didn't even remember much to begin with. I went to DW when I was 10 or 11 and we took one of those "staged" photo montages wearing the so-overused-they're-torn costumes and the fake-looking plastic props. Believe me, it made perfect sense at the time. You got on a ride, you take a picture. Back then (early 90s) Disneyland didn't seem TOO concerned to have their rides related back to their movies. There was no "Little Mermaid Under the Sea Adventure" or "Toy Story Arcade" rides. It was just a collection of randomly themed rides, like "It's a Small World", "Jungle World" and "Splash Mountain", the only thing tying them together was the persistent three-sphere logo in every corner. Can you judge me for forgetting that unimportant, lame-ass boat ride? I watched the movie a few years later because my brother bought the DVD and I had nothing better to do at the time. Needless to say, obsessed became my new middle name.

The first one was a full circle, much like the first Matrix movie. It was one complete, standalone, balanced concept. Many "piratey"notions, like bad luck for having a women on a ship, walking the plank, marooning, attacking/plundering villages, treasure hunting and haunted ships were an interesting concept. The last successful movie to address these subjects was The Goonies. Of course the fact that all the ghost stories were "true" put a whole new twist to these movies!

The second one is my favorite. It is even more myth populated, full of action and very, very funny. Showing us the curse of the Flying Dutchman and the scary Kraken attack made chills run up my spine. But they did a bunch of things I'm not entirely sure were necessary. The re-introduction of characters and presentation of many other's was quite saturating.

Bootstrap Bill coming in the picture kind of made sense, after all, he did have a share of the Black Pearl curse that made him immortal, even when they tried to kill him by tying him to the canon. After breaking the curse, he should've died, but he had already been Shanghai-ed by the Flying Dutchman, so yeah, that worked. But having Norrington, Barbossa and the two love-birds come back besides including heavyweight characters such as Tia Dalma, Davy Jones, and Cutler Beckett, threw the balance out the window and placed too much responsibility on the third installment to bring all the loose-ends to a fully conclusive circle.

This is what I felt when I watched the third installment:

"Take that you over-expectant beyotch!" 

You'd think that with all the slew of charas introduced in Dead Man's Chest, they'd have enough to work with in At World's End, but they prove that an overspilled glass can still be filled with yet another wave of unnecessary extras introduced, like Sao Feng, Calypso (She is different from Tia Dalma as we never had mention of the Sea Goddess before and she's quite opposite from the small swamp witch) and the pirate lords. DEAR LORD! ALL THE PIRATE LORDS! As far as I was concerned, pirates were basically just thieves in search for treasures, and now we have a court with Pirate Kings?! C'mon!

Bringing back Sparrow from the Locker was necessary, yes, but this army of pirates and tangled construction of Will's twisted plan to save his father, Beckett trying to rule the seas, Davy Jones coming to terms with his girl, and the rest all had their own objectives in mind. Can we say plotty? PLOTTY!

Even this "Asianization" of Elizabeth (pictured here, asianization of Sparrow which didn't actually happen in the movie) was lame. In a move to make Elizabeth more important, they get Sao Feng to believe she is Calypso in her human form, so he brings her aboard his ship and eventually gets killed and hands down his artifact that should be used to free her Goddess form. I'm confused. Wasn't Sao Feng THERE when they bound Calypso in the first place? How could he not know what she looked like in her human? Apparently everyone else was clear on who Tia Dalma was.    And more importantly, why make Elizabeth more important? She already had enough camera time as it was.

Anyway, the hot mess did sort of tied up loose ends. We did see the end of the Kraken, Davy Jones, Beckett, and the pieces moved around to make Will the new Locker master. They also made way for the fourth installment by letting us know about the Fountain of Youth. We have our premise!

I once dreamed with the Captain. Yes. I had a dream about Capt'n Jack Sparrow, not Johnny Depp. All I remember is that I got a look at his past. In Curse of the Black Pearl they mention his weird acting was because he went mad with the heat when he was marooned on an island. Well, kind of. Anyway, I had a dream that explained how he went "crazy". It was because he was in love. He had been in love with a pirate girl and she betrayed him to her own benefit and pushed him off a building and hit his head. Everyone though he lost it because of the fall, but it was really just the notion of him losing his loved one. So Sparrow having a re encounter with a woman from his past in Stranger Tides not only made perfect sense to me, it made me excited to see this!

I was going to write up a review of the movie, but since I went into it with just a vague idea of what it's about, I have now forgotten much of the plot. So this review won't be that accurate. I'll just offer a general feel about the movie.

At first we see Sparrow in London. He's there to prevent his old friend Gibbs from walking into the gallows. It's all followed by a "high speed car chase through the streets of London". Too exaggerated and too long. But fine, whatever, we get some action.

Long story short, Jack's Dad Keith Richards Captain Teague, lets his son know how to get to the fountain of youth. Then Sparrow fights Sparrow, rather, he has an encounter with his past love. And hey! Whadoyaknow, she's a con-artist, pirate girl who had somehow betrayed Jack in the past. I know my dream here made me more excited that I should be. Now I forget how, but Jack comes into the service of the Queen Anne's Revenge under the command of BlackBeard. Being one of the most recognizable historical pirates, I was expecting BlackBeard to be scarier and more bad-ass, but it seemed that all his power came from the ship's power to make ropes come to life, which was cool, but something anyone in possession of BlackBeard's sword could do.

Barbossa was brought back as well. As I heard, it was Johnny Depp himself who insisted the never ending Barbossa-Sparrow feud should be revisited, and as it turns out, it was a good move. Other than looking for the fountain of youth, there wasn't much going on, so these two going at it again brought back some familiar territory we could stand on since most of the characters and crew are all new.

Again, long story short, they follow the map, go treasure hunting for Ponce de Leon's cups, a mermaid and ultimately find the Fountain of Youth in the ruins of a...temple... it was so weird. Pieces of Greco-Roman columns, with south American glyphs and Ponce de Leon's cups were needed to make the ritual work? I mean, how does that make sense? Other than myth, it's time-line and geo-location is completely off, just so... out of place. Anyway, the spell works out and Penelope Cruz gets eternal life or at least two life times, and then gets marooned by Sparrow on an Island! Note to self: YAY SPARROW for getting revenge on that bitch for throwing him off that building so many years ago!.....- !?!?!?-


I think overall the movie does pretty good on itself, and definitely a positive step toward possible sequels. As the critics have stated, I also believe there could've been more done with the zombies. They merely mention their existence and were basically just hands on deck. How about lunch time at the zombies'? Haaaa! Now, THAT would've been something. The mermaids were KICK ASS. Both beautiful and deadly. I'm just not sure the romance between the religious guy and the mermaid should've been so important. I found myself rolling my eyes and wanting their scenes to finish quickly. This coming from a girl who likes Twilight. I just... I felt there was no real love there. Dude was hot for a pretty girl, that's it. It's not like he liked her personality or they had lived through many things. It was more of a compassion thing, so having to watch those uncomfortable pseudo-romantic moment was *yawn* boring. Yeah, they could've gone into it, OR they could've developed Jack's love past. I say ditch the fake love story, stick to the Sparrow.

I'm a huge fan of these movies. I love them and will watch any sequels. It's pretty cool that Johnny Depp also loves this character so much too, he's mentioned that he's not yet ready to part with the pirate and he could see himself portraying Sparrow for many years to come. Yes! Please do!

Now time for a random picture from the set.

 Depp as Sparrow playing the guitar... it's like awesome over amazing! :D!!

 And of course, the obligatory doll-related image post. 

A Tonner Doll Jack Sparrow repaint by Noeling.

The man himself with his dolls:

And finally some of my POTC items. Not too many, 

but definitely all very dear in my heart.