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selenakSecond entry of the day, because now, post-Bayreuth, I FINALLY managed to see the second Pirates movie. And now having checked some other reactions, I guess I have another case of having fallen for the least popular character in the fandom. Because guess whom I adored in this one, having liked her already in Curse of the Black Pearl? That's right. Elizabeth.
When she chained Jack up to leave him for the kraken, she joined my pantheon containing the likes of Emma Frost, Irina Derevko, Winn Adami, Laura Roslin and other smart manipulative, ruthless women who are completely capable of behaving dastardly in order to get what they want. This, btw, does not mean I approve of each of their actions, or don't feel sorry for those on the other other hand of the dastardly treatment. (Says she who loves the likes of Arvin Sloane and Londo Mollari as well.) In this particular case, I must admit to a certain gleefulness, though, because a certain type of male character preaching to a female character of how she needs to be honest and show the rogue within (say, Rhett Butler) just makes me want to slap him in the face with the result, because usually said character then expects the female to be ruthless with everyone else, just not him. Anyway, Dead Man's Chest is generally a darker film - in an early scene of the first movie, we see a few skeletons swinging in the wind, in the the second, we get men's eyes picked out in those cages, and that pretty much sets the tone. I remember debates on the first film wanting to have its cake and eat it by presenting nice pirates (Jack) and bad pirates (Barbossa & crew). Here, what with cut throats left and right and Jack being willing to trade both Will and 99 other men for his own freedom for quite a while, that's not an issue.
That's another thing I loved: call it the undermining of the Jack Sparrow, lovable rogue image. One of the reasons why Han Solo over at Star Wars pretty much left me cold is that he was pretty much the cynic with a heart of gold, the kind of "ambiguous" character it's safe to love because he never does anything truly nasty, we know he'd never really abandon his friends, and most importantly, we never see any victims of supposed ruthless decisions he made in the past. Here, both Jack and Elizabeth are shown as ambiguous in a way that doesn't give such a safe "out". Jack does leave Will to Davy Jones, and the other (short lived) survivors have faces, too. Elizabeth gets Will, the crew of the Black Pearl and herself safely on shore not by risking/sacrificing the life of random redshirt X, she does it by tricking and sacrificing the universally beloved Jack Sparrow. Even bit players like what-was-their-name-again, the clownish duo, have their moment of darkness, the brief scene where Elizabeth is unarmed and they're alone with her. And you remember they are pirates, professional cutthroats and yes, probably rapists, too.
On a more shallow note, someone must have noticed in the first movie that Keira Knighley looked great in male seaman's get up during that short sequence she wore it on Norrington's ship, and put it to good use by letting her wear said wardrobe for most of the movie. As opposed to many an actress, she looked androgynous enough in it to make the get up convincing.
Speaking of looks, Jack Davenport pulls off the scruffy one for Norrington smolderingly. The good Commodore had his fans already after movie one, being one avoided cliché - i.e. instead of the stuffy evil fiancé, he was the decent honorable fiancé - but now I'd be surprised if there wasn a middle season 3 (of Angel) Wesley Wyndham-Pryce effect. It's funny, DMC seems to have resulted in an explosion of Jack/Elizabeth fic for obvious reasons (though in reviews Elizabeth still seems to fare worst in terms of condemnation), but what I really want to read is Elizabeth 'n James. Their brief scenes were fascinating to me, and I loved both that she stopped him from taking on the tavern drunk by knocking him out and that she went after him later to collect him from mud. I want a missing scene ficlet for what happens after her "James Norrington, what has life done to you" and before she shows up with him in tow at the Black Pearl. Conversely, their scene with Norrington making his pointed remark about just how Will ended up on Davy Jones' ship was fab, displaying James N. in his intelligence and newfound level when interacting with Elizabeth (they couldn't be further from the couple at Port Royal just before she fell in the sea). One more thing about Norrington: having outsmarted Jack, I fully expect him to deal with East India Company Guy next, possibly in collusion with (Ex-)Governer Swann, who was great in this movie, too.
The downside of things? Well, like virtually everyone else has said, the cannibals' island sequence was completely superfluous. I take it they also caused a debate about racism. What it did remind me of was of course the Ewoks sequence in RotJ, but Ewoks don't have a history of slavery going on at exactly the same time this movie is supposedly set.
(Star Wars homages galore in this movie; aside from the obvious Jack-with-kraken/Han-in-carbonite, we have Bootstrap Bill Turner as a milder version of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (does that make Davy Jones Palpatine?), and hey, a female Yoda in the swamp.)
Also, a lot of set-ups, as is a film's wont if the makes know there'll be a sequel, for which we have to wait regarding the pay-off; the whole story of Davy Jones' getting his heart broken by a woman, obviously. (My bet is on Yoda, err, Tia Dalmas.) Also the letters that were in the chest; Elizabeth read one quickly while the boys were arguing, and I wonder whether she'll have learned something that will come in handy when dealing with Jones. And of course: Barbossa. Able to eat apples, so presumably not around by virtue of having become undead again.
All in all, I enjoyed watching it, and am looking forward to the next one.
When she chained Jack up to leave him for the kraken, she joined my pantheon containing the likes of Emma Frost, Irina Derevko, Winn Adami, Laura Roslin and other smart manipulative, ruthless women who are completely capable of behaving dastardly in order to get what they want. This, btw, does not mean I approve of each of their actions, or don't feel sorry for those on the other other hand of the dastardly treatment. (Says she who loves the likes of Arvin Sloane and Londo Mollari as well.) In this particular case, I must admit to a certain gleefulness, though, because a certain type of male character preaching to a female character of how she needs to be honest and show the rogue within (say, Rhett Butler) just makes me want to slap him in the face with the result, because usually said character then expects the female to be ruthless with everyone else, just not him. Anyway, Dead Man's Chest is generally a darker film - in an early scene of the first movie, we see a few skeletons swinging in the wind, in the the second, we get men's eyes picked out in those cages, and that pretty much sets the tone. I remember debates on the first film wanting to have its cake and eat it by presenting nice pirates (Jack) and bad pirates (Barbossa & crew). Here, what with cut throats left and right and Jack being willing to trade both Will and 99 other men for his own freedom for quite a while, that's not an issue.
That's another thing I loved: call it the undermining of the Jack Sparrow, lovable rogue image. One of the reasons why Han Solo over at Star Wars pretty much left me cold is that he was pretty much the cynic with a heart of gold, the kind of "ambiguous" character it's safe to love because he never does anything truly nasty, we know he'd never really abandon his friends, and most importantly, we never see any victims of supposed ruthless decisions he made in the past. Here, both Jack and Elizabeth are shown as ambiguous in a way that doesn't give such a safe "out". Jack does leave Will to Davy Jones, and the other (short lived) survivors have faces, too. Elizabeth gets Will, the crew of the Black Pearl and herself safely on shore not by risking/sacrificing the life of random redshirt X, she does it by tricking and sacrificing the universally beloved Jack Sparrow. Even bit players like what-was-their-name-again, the clownish duo, have their moment of darkness, the brief scene where Elizabeth is unarmed and they're alone with her. And you remember they are pirates, professional cutthroats and yes, probably rapists, too.
On a more shallow note, someone must have noticed in the first movie that Keira Knighley looked great in male seaman's get up during that short sequence she wore it on Norrington's ship, and put it to good use by letting her wear said wardrobe for most of the movie. As opposed to many an actress, she looked androgynous enough in it to make the get up convincing.
Speaking of looks, Jack Davenport pulls off the scruffy one for Norrington smolderingly. The good Commodore had his fans already after movie one, being one avoided cliché - i.e. instead of the stuffy evil fiancé, he was the decent honorable fiancé - but now I'd be surprised if there wasn a middle season 3 (of Angel) Wesley Wyndham-Pryce effect. It's funny, DMC seems to have resulted in an explosion of Jack/Elizabeth fic for obvious reasons (though in reviews Elizabeth still seems to fare worst in terms of condemnation), but what I really want to read is Elizabeth 'n James. Their brief scenes were fascinating to me, and I loved both that she stopped him from taking on the tavern drunk by knocking him out and that she went after him later to collect him from mud. I want a missing scene ficlet for what happens after her "James Norrington, what has life done to you" and before she shows up with him in tow at the Black Pearl. Conversely, their scene with Norrington making his pointed remark about just how Will ended up on Davy Jones' ship was fab, displaying James N. in his intelligence and newfound level when interacting with Elizabeth (they couldn't be further from the couple at Port Royal just before she fell in the sea). One more thing about Norrington: having outsmarted Jack, I fully expect him to deal with East India Company Guy next, possibly in collusion with (Ex-)Governer Swann, who was great in this movie, too.
The downside of things? Well, like virtually everyone else has said, the cannibals' island sequence was completely superfluous. I take it they also caused a debate about racism. What it did remind me of was of course the Ewoks sequence in RotJ, but Ewoks don't have a history of slavery going on at exactly the same time this movie is supposedly set.
(Star Wars homages galore in this movie; aside from the obvious Jack-with-kraken/Han-in-carbonite, we have Bootstrap Bill Turner as a milder version of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (does that make Davy Jones Palpatine?), and hey, a female Yoda in the swamp.)
Also, a lot of set-ups, as is a film's wont if the makes know there'll be a sequel, for which we have to wait regarding the pay-off; the whole story of Davy Jones' getting his heart broken by a woman, obviously. (My bet is on Yoda, err, Tia Dalmas.) Also the letters that were in the chest; Elizabeth read one quickly while the boys were arguing, and I wonder whether she'll have learned something that will come in handy when dealing with Jones. And of course: Barbossa. Able to eat apples, so presumably not around by virtue of having become undead again.
All in all, I enjoyed watching it, and am looking forward to the next one.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 06:13 pm (UTC)I think it was a darker movie, in which no one behaves very well (with the exception of Will, most of the time), and I think one of the challenges for these characters in the third movie will be to find their way to some kind of mutual trust. It's all so interesting. *is in the throes of fannish infatuation*
no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 06:19 pm (UTC)I think another reason why I'm so heads over heels about Elizabeth in particular is that she could have been so easily the love interest typical for Bruckenheimer movies, not interesting in herself, just for the hero/heroes to pine over - and that female characters rarely get to display this kind of ruthless pragmatism, unless they're meant to be the villains, which she is not.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 10:02 pm (UTC)Me too! I thought Elizabeth was awesome :)