He's a pirate, savvy?
May. 25th, 2007 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteJust came back from POTC3: At World's End. There were some expected bits, some unexpected bits, and some bits I was glad they included in the trailer. Generally, I liked it. If you don't mind being spoiled, or have already seen it, read on.
If "Dead Man's Chest" left us with a ton of questions, "At World's End" answered them all. At least, as far as I can tell. It set up the relationship between someone special to Davy Jones (what with his locket, his "powers" and so on), it set up Will's need to save his father, and it set up Elizabeth's decision on what to really do, where to go, and whom to go with.
I already knew about the first bit of the movie from a guide I read at Borders (albeit I closed it in the first few pages, since I didn't want to spoil myself TOO badly, and thank goodness for my self-control, else I might not have has had a good a time as I did). I think they did a pretty decent job with everyone in Singapore, though I wish I could have seen Will's attempt at stealing the navigational maps. And besides, what about how they got to Singapore in the first place, considering they didn't have a ship OR a crew when they were last at Tia Dalma's? And if Will didn't go with them, how did HE get to Singapore?
I loved all the fighting scenes-- I think everything was amazingly well-done, and nothing looked too particularly over-the-top, effects-wise, save maybe the scene where Cutler-Beckett was walking through the debris of the Endeavor.
Speaking of good' ol (har har) CB, there was never any explanation of how he originally met/branded Jack, how he knew about Jack's compass (which was a gift from Tia Dalma, as I understood), and why Jack wanted the Black Pearl resurrected from the depths from Davy Jones in the first place. I read somewhere that it was because Jack originally worked for CB, but when he was forced to do slave trade, he refused. CB branded Jack a pirate, then sank his ship. Jack embraced the whole thing, made the deal with Davy Jones (as he must have been on the verge of death aboard his ship when it sank anyway), and... here we are. Of course, that may not be accurate, but it's as good as any explanation I've heard yet.
Plot-wise, like I said, I think everything got resolved. Everyone got Jack back, Elizabeth committed to what side she was on, she came clean about what she REALLY did to Jack (and that was quite amusing, though I expected a bit more of a backlash), and after some more backstabbing, so did Will and James. I feel bad that Norrington had to die... I mean, he was a bit of an ass in the first movie, but still a rather likable guy. The main villain in any of the movies was never Norrington. It also bummed me out that Elizabeth's father died... but in a way, that made her stronger, and able to really be a PirateQueen King! I thought it was funny when Jack voted for her... it made me think everyone had connected plans again, just like Jack and Will ended up having in the first movie.
Lots of bits were unexpected... and lots weren't. Tia Dalma being Calypso didn't surprise me in the least. I expected her to be more like DC's Naiad, though-- not to keep her human form even after they "freed" her. And finally, when she did get freed, the crab references in the beginning of the movie started to make sense. As for her being trapped in the first place, I guess how it went is that she and Davy Jones fell in love with one another after Davy Jones met her and asked for her favor. She granted his favor, in return for him ferrying the souls of the dead aboard the Flying Dutchman. But after 10 years, he didn't want to do it anymore, and in order to escape his "curse," told the Pirate Brethren how to seal her away. But because he stopped doing his job and basically betrayed his love, he had to take out his heart to keep commanding the Dutchman. At least, that's how I understood it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
But what I DON'T get is why the Dutchman continually needs that heart to keep doing its job. It makes sense that the ferry of the dead be armed with dead, or those who SHOULD be dead, but... after Will freed his father from the curse, his father OPTED to stay aboard. He was just alive as he had been BEFORE the mutiny aboard the Black Pearl. I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew, but they, like Bootstrap, were human again. I wonder if that had something to do with the Dutchman's new captain and his wishes.
THAT is what really surprised and saddened me. I should have seen it coming, when Tia Dalma said that Davy Jones was never cruel-- he really wanted to prove to her and to everyone else that he was, that he had to be, because of what he'd let himself become. So he murdered love when he saw it-- he grew to hate anything that reminded him of her, because he knew that with what he'd done (and technically agreed to, in the first place... I mean hello, goddess of the Sea? Not exactly Lady Predictable, here) that they could never be together again.
I knew the Dutchman NEEDED a captain, and I had a feeling that Jack was going to hesitate and not do it... so Jones decided for him. What baffled me was that Will was already dying, while Jack had the heart-- so how did Will manage to stab it? It looked like he and Elizabeth both stabbed it at the same time, together, or that Bootstrap had something to do with it... but it all happened so fast, I could hardly tell. And because the heart was destroyed (I wonder if Jones had really COUNTED on that, and was just going to choose the person that would destroy Elizabeth and Will's love best?), Jones disappeared, and the only real candidate for the captaincy was Will...
It made me so sad to see that scene. (The fact that he died "by his own sword" made it even eerier. I wonder if that was something they planned from the moment he made that sword, gave it to Governor Swann, and then had it passed to Norrington, and then CB to Jones...)I still don't understand fully why the captain must never stray on land for but one day out of 10 years... I thought that was something specific to Davy Jones' curse with Calypso, but apparently it's part of the immortality bargain of being the captain of the Dutchman. You get immortality and presumably a bunch of other powers (walking through solid objects and bodies of water), but you must never stray on land but for one day in 10 years, and you must ferry the souls of the dead to the other side... which means a constant trip between "our world" at the realm At World's End, right?
But Will's nothing if not a good soul, so I can see why he ended up doing it... I mean, in the end, he kept his promise, he married Elizabeth (Barbossa marrying them was a laugh riot, especially when he was all "JUST KISS!" while fighting everyone that was attacking him), and so on. Everyone "chose their sides," and everyone fought their hardest for what they believed in. It was an appropriate ending, albeit not the very best, happiest one I could have pictured. I would have been so mad if it ended up Jack/Elizabeth, to be honest with you, because even though I like them as a pairing, I don't think it has any sustainability (and as Jack himself said, "Once is enough, thanks"). But when Will died and Jack and Elizabeth escaped, I was like "...Whut?" because I thought it was going to be like "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" all over again, with what I felt was a ton of build-up for ANOTHER, completely different pairing/storyline, and then this other pairing just sort of sweeping in from left field.
That's not to say there haven't been J/E hints since the first film --there have!-- but in terms of real relationship potential, they don't have it. Despite the pirates winning in the movie, CB wasn't kidding when he said the pirates were part of a dying age. Will's the only one out of them all that's immortal in any respect now, and judging by the end of the movie, that means he doesn't age, either. But unless someone does to him what he did to Jones, how exactly does he get freed from the Dutchman? I don't think he can, else he would have figured out how within the 10 years he was gone.
And, if like me, you stayed after the credits (like a smart person would have), you would know that Elizabeth had a son, and Will appears for the first time "Ten years later..." as she's standing on a cliff with William III (he wasn't named, but I can't imagine him being named anything else, really), watching the sunset and the Dutchman appear from a flash of green. A "soul" returning from the dead, eh? So Will's "heartless," but still very much alive and with a soul. That's what separates him from Jones, I guess-- Jones must have traded his soul away.
The fics will come pouring in, I'm sure, with all sorts of alternative endings for everyone, and ones that swing the pairing map every whichway. I personally would like to see Will's reaction to his son.
Some people in the theatre (when they saw William III) said "She had a kid after only ONE time?" because of course, Elizabeth had to have gotten pregnant the first time she and Will finally slept with each other, on the one day on the beach before he took off with the Dutchman. But given how much they'd restrained themselves up till then, it doesn't surprise me. Besides, it's not like back then, they had reliable birth control... ^_~ And in that last scene, it was SO obvious they'd been doing SOMETHING on that ship.
What I do want to know is, how did Elizabeth get off that island? Or did she? It's not like she was on the Black Pearl when Barbossa mutinied it again (well, technically he just sailed off with it, he didn't ask the crew for a vote...), so perhaps she stayed on that island, and that was the same island Will returned to after the credits rolled. It's entirely possible it was inhabited, or became inhabited, or... something.
So while I don't think there's going to be a Pirates 4, there are a few ways they could do it. I'll just be fine with novels, novelizations, and fanfics filling in that gap for me-- perhaps there'll be a few more adventures with Barbossa and Jack, and we'll find out what happened to Gibbs after Tortuga, and we'll find out how Elizabeth fared after she discovered herself pregnant with orphaned. I'd like to know if perhaps Will helped escort James Norrington to his final resting place, too. And did Elizabeth ever remarry? Doubtful. But how did she get by? She probably didn't exactly stay the Pirate King, though I imagine that knowing all she did, she could have picked up a decent amount of wealth from her stint and lived on that. But how did she explain just who William III's father was to him, and what he does, and why he only shows up once every ten years? Ah, and the worth of that single day... *tear*
All in all, a well-rounded movie, with the right balance of emotion, effects, and plot.
I also finished Ceres: Celestial Legend and, like POTC3, it had the kind of ending that just makes you go "Ah, well." It wasn't good, it wasn't bad, it was just an ENDING. And it was what made sense, and what felt right. And like POTC3, it's got a bit of possibility on its own-- but that's what fanfic's for either way, right?
If "Dead Man's Chest" left us with a ton of questions, "At World's End" answered them all. At least, as far as I can tell. It set up the relationship between someone special to Davy Jones (what with his locket, his "powers" and so on), it set up Will's need to save his father, and it set up Elizabeth's decision on what to really do, where to go, and whom to go with.
I already knew about the first bit of the movie from a guide I read at Borders (albeit I closed it in the first few pages, since I didn't want to spoil myself TOO badly, and thank goodness for my self-control, else I might not have has had a good a time as I did). I think they did a pretty decent job with everyone in Singapore, though I wish I could have seen Will's attempt at stealing the navigational maps. And besides, what about how they got to Singapore in the first place, considering they didn't have a ship OR a crew when they were last at Tia Dalma's? And if Will didn't go with them, how did HE get to Singapore?
I loved all the fighting scenes-- I think everything was amazingly well-done, and nothing looked too particularly over-the-top, effects-wise, save maybe the scene where Cutler-Beckett was walking through the debris of the Endeavor.
Speaking of good' ol (har har) CB, there was never any explanation of how he originally met/branded Jack, how he knew about Jack's compass (which was a gift from Tia Dalma, as I understood), and why Jack wanted the Black Pearl resurrected from the depths from Davy Jones in the first place. I read somewhere that it was because Jack originally worked for CB, but when he was forced to do slave trade, he refused. CB branded Jack a pirate, then sank his ship. Jack embraced the whole thing, made the deal with Davy Jones (as he must have been on the verge of death aboard his ship when it sank anyway), and... here we are. Of course, that may not be accurate, but it's as good as any explanation I've heard yet.
Plot-wise, like I said, I think everything got resolved. Everyone got Jack back, Elizabeth committed to what side she was on, she came clean about what she REALLY did to Jack (and that was quite amusing, though I expected a bit more of a backlash), and after some more backstabbing, so did Will and James. I feel bad that Norrington had to die... I mean, he was a bit of an ass in the first movie, but still a rather likable guy. The main villain in any of the movies was never Norrington. It also bummed me out that Elizabeth's father died... but in a way, that made her stronger, and able to really be a Pirate
Lots of bits were unexpected... and lots weren't. Tia Dalma being Calypso didn't surprise me in the least. I expected her to be more like DC's Naiad, though-- not to keep her human form even after they "freed" her. And finally, when she did get freed, the crab references in the beginning of the movie started to make sense. As for her being trapped in the first place, I guess how it went is that she and Davy Jones fell in love with one another after Davy Jones met her and asked for her favor. She granted his favor, in return for him ferrying the souls of the dead aboard the Flying Dutchman. But after 10 years, he didn't want to do it anymore, and in order to escape his "curse," told the Pirate Brethren how to seal her away. But because he stopped doing his job and basically betrayed his love, he had to take out his heart to keep commanding the Dutchman. At least, that's how I understood it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
But what I DON'T get is why the Dutchman continually needs that heart to keep doing its job. It makes sense that the ferry of the dead be armed with dead, or those who SHOULD be dead, but... after Will freed his father from the curse, his father OPTED to stay aboard. He was just alive as he had been BEFORE the mutiny aboard the Black Pearl. I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew, but they, like Bootstrap, were human again. I wonder if that had something to do with the Dutchman's new captain and his wishes.
THAT is what really surprised and saddened me. I should have seen it coming, when Tia Dalma said that Davy Jones was never cruel-- he really wanted to prove to her and to everyone else that he was, that he had to be, because of what he'd let himself become. So he murdered love when he saw it-- he grew to hate anything that reminded him of her, because he knew that with what he'd done (and technically agreed to, in the first place... I mean hello, goddess of the Sea? Not exactly Lady Predictable, here) that they could never be together again.
I knew the Dutchman NEEDED a captain, and I had a feeling that Jack was going to hesitate and not do it... so Jones decided for him. What baffled me was that Will was already dying, while Jack had the heart-- so how did Will manage to stab it? It looked like he and Elizabeth both stabbed it at the same time, together, or that Bootstrap had something to do with it... but it all happened so fast, I could hardly tell. And because the heart was destroyed (I wonder if Jones had really COUNTED on that, and was just going to choose the person that would destroy Elizabeth and Will's love best?), Jones disappeared, and the only real candidate for the captaincy was Will...
It made me so sad to see that scene. (The fact that he died "by his own sword" made it even eerier. I wonder if that was something they planned from the moment he made that sword, gave it to Governor Swann, and then had it passed to Norrington, and then CB to Jones...)I still don't understand fully why the captain must never stray on land for but one day out of 10 years... I thought that was something specific to Davy Jones' curse with Calypso, but apparently it's part of the immortality bargain of being the captain of the Dutchman. You get immortality and presumably a bunch of other powers (walking through solid objects and bodies of water), but you must never stray on land but for one day in 10 years, and you must ferry the souls of the dead to the other side... which means a constant trip between "our world" at the realm At World's End, right?
But Will's nothing if not a good soul, so I can see why he ended up doing it... I mean, in the end, he kept his promise, he married Elizabeth (Barbossa marrying them was a laugh riot, especially when he was all "JUST KISS!" while fighting everyone that was attacking him), and so on. Everyone "chose their sides," and everyone fought their hardest for what they believed in. It was an appropriate ending, albeit not the very best, happiest one I could have pictured. I would have been so mad if it ended up Jack/Elizabeth, to be honest with you, because even though I like them as a pairing, I don't think it has any sustainability (and as Jack himself said, "Once is enough, thanks"). But when Will died and Jack and Elizabeth escaped, I was like "...Whut?" because I thought it was going to be like "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" all over again, with what I felt was a ton of build-up for ANOTHER, completely different pairing/storyline, and then this other pairing just sort of sweeping in from left field.
That's not to say there haven't been J/E hints since the first film --there have!-- but in terms of real relationship potential, they don't have it. Despite the pirates winning in the movie, CB wasn't kidding when he said the pirates were part of a dying age. Will's the only one out of them all that's immortal in any respect now, and judging by the end of the movie, that means he doesn't age, either. But unless someone does to him what he did to Jones, how exactly does he get freed from the Dutchman? I don't think he can, else he would have figured out how within the 10 years he was gone.
And, if like me, you stayed after the credits (like a smart person would have), you would know that Elizabeth had a son, and Will appears for the first time "Ten years later..." as she's standing on a cliff with William III (he wasn't named, but I can't imagine him being named anything else, really), watching the sunset and the Dutchman appear from a flash of green. A "soul" returning from the dead, eh? So Will's "heartless," but still very much alive and with a soul. That's what separates him from Jones, I guess-- Jones must have traded his soul away.
The fics will come pouring in, I'm sure, with all sorts of alternative endings for everyone, and ones that swing the pairing map every whichway. I personally would like to see Will's reaction to his son.
Some people in the theatre (when they saw William III) said "She had a kid after only ONE time?" because of course, Elizabeth had to have gotten pregnant the first time she and Will finally slept with each other, on the one day on the beach before he took off with the Dutchman. But given how much they'd restrained themselves up till then, it doesn't surprise me. Besides, it's not like back then, they had reliable birth control... ^_~ And in that last scene, it was SO obvious they'd been doing SOMETHING on that ship.
What I do want to know is, how did Elizabeth get off that island? Or did she? It's not like she was on the Black Pearl when Barbossa mutinied it again (well, technically he just sailed off with it, he didn't ask the crew for a vote...), so perhaps she stayed on that island, and that was the same island Will returned to after the credits rolled. It's entirely possible it was inhabited, or became inhabited, or... something.
So while I don't think there's going to be a Pirates 4, there are a few ways they could do it. I'll just be fine with novels, novelizations, and fanfics filling in that gap for me-- perhaps there'll be a few more adventures with Barbossa and Jack, and we'll find out what happened to Gibbs after Tortuga, and we'll find out how Elizabeth fared after she discovered herself pregnant with orphaned. I'd like to know if perhaps Will helped escort James Norrington to his final resting place, too. And did Elizabeth ever remarry? Doubtful. But how did she get by? She probably didn't exactly stay the Pirate King, though I imagine that knowing all she did, she could have picked up a decent amount of wealth from her stint and lived on that. But how did she explain just who William III's father was to him, and what he does, and why he only shows up once every ten years? Ah, and the worth of that single day... *tear*
All in all, a well-rounded movie, with the right balance of emotion, effects, and plot.
I also finished Ceres: Celestial Legend and, like POTC3, it had the kind of ending that just makes you go "Ah, well." It wasn't good, it wasn't bad, it was just an ENDING. And it was what made sense, and what felt right. And like POTC3, it's got a bit of possibility on its own-- but that's what fanfic's for either way, right?
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 06:43 am (UTC)I wasn't Jack/Elizabeth, but I really wasn't Will/Elizabeth either. From the way things looked, they only had sex the one time on the beach before Will left on the Dutchman. But here's the thing - there's nothing preventing Elizabeth from being on board with him, is there? Will, Elizabeth, Norrington and the British soldiers all spent extended periods of time on the Dutchman when it was under Jones's captaincy and there didn't seem to be any adverse side effects. So what stopped Elizabeth from joining Will? I can see him putting her in an inhabited area once her pregnancy was further along but not at that point.
I think that Elizabeth still considers herself married to Will and I wouldn't be surprised to see a second child come from this visit (she'd be what, only 28/29?) It would actually be quite easy for her to explain to little Will where his father is - captaining a ship on a long voyage at sea. It's a believeable excuse for that time and no one would question it.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 07:14 am (UTC)And you're right-- nothing really WAS preventing her from being on the Dutchman, except Will probably was resuming the job Jones didn't care to do after 10 years-- ferry the souls of the dead. And I imagine you can't be alive to keep doing that-- they barely survived the journey to rescue Jack as it was, and I doubt Will would want Elizabeth on the Dutchman when it's going through the Arctic/Antarctic or when it flips into the "real" world again.
The thing was, I bet with Norrington, et. al. aboard the Dutchman, they never had it submerge/re-emerge as it did when it was JUST Jones in control. I doubt they could have survived that. But actual, established crew can survive that, regardless of their "form" (fishy or otherwise, as Will established in the post-credit scene).
And according to the FAQ on the movie, the curse breaks after 10 years of doing the ferrying anyway-- what turned Jones into the tentacally asshole was the fact that after 10 years, he was angry about Tia Dalma/Calypso not being where she was supposed to meet him, so he betrayed how to seal her to the Brethren. She didn't know that, but because Jones kept the Dutchman and didn't do the job required of it (and he was heartless at that point, and probably soulless, too), it began to curse him-- hence the sea-creature appearance. But the 10-year-deal was part of the Dutchman's own rule-- the ship needs a captain, the captain can't have a heart, and his real, still-beating heart must be kept on land, which he can't set foot on for but 1 day in 10 years.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 11:21 pm (UTC)I thought of 2 questions for it nonetheless:
(1) Just what was the nature of the curse of the Flying Dutchman? Why did Davy Jones get all tentacle-faced, but Will didn't? Is it because Jones didn't keep ferrying the souls of the dead after 10 years, and Calypso, in anger, made him look like that? Or something else?
(2) Jack said "Four of you tried to kill me. One of you succeeded." Okay, present there when he said that were Barbossa (end of CotBP), Will (DMC), and Elizabeth (end of DMC), but who was the fourth?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 12:57 pm (UTC)If I remember the timeline correctly, they are pretty much at the end of the Golden Age of Pirates....
Port Royal also sank into the water, too. =P Earthquake and all. I think they're skewing the timelines a bit with Port Royal and the piracy and a few other things, but--- =D
I enjoyed the movie highly. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.