The AWE Post of Doom

[meddow]

Okay, where to begin.

I was entertained. I enjoyed myself. I do have two major gripes, but I’ll get to them later. Generally, I really liked it.

First of all, non-character or relationship specific things…

The first scene was beautiful. I’m a big sucker for people singing in the face of adversity. I fact so many of the scenes were beautiful, Elizabeth’s final scene in the water, the boat crossing the blackness, the underwater scene (that was particularly brilliant).

Greatest. Wedding. Ever – I loved that scene so much, at the same time hilarious, romantic and action packed - it was just brilliant. And Elizabeth choosing Barbossa – just perfect (and if anyone who hasn’t seen it reads this, they are going to be mighty confused by that statement).

Piece of eight being pieces of whatever pirate have hanging around – snerk. Love that too.

I adored the many send ups to the first movie, Jacks entrance aboard the pearl, Beckett begin pawned by Jack and then Groves making a remark that was so similar to Norrington and Groves scene in CotBP, sea turtles, all those little things.

Special effects at no point made me cringe, and I really like where the ending left the characters, with a lot of potential for the tale to continue on in either movie of fanfic format.

And now onto the characters…

Jack – I’m not sure how the world at large is going to take the multiple Jacks. I adore it. For any other character in any other movie, it probably would not have worked, but Jack has always been portrayed as somewhat insane and so it worked for him did. I thought it was a really good technique to get inside his head. Not quite so fond of the little Jacks on his shoulder as much as the normal sized Jacks since that is such a cliché, but certainly enjoyed the big Jacks once I figured out that was going on.

Jack was funny, as always. I don’t think he really learnt much, other than not to kiss Elizabeth, but I was never really expecting him to have too much character development. Jack is Jack, he is who he is and no one else is quite like him, and I think that is his role in the movies, to be the character that never changes.

Jack and Barbossa – The pissing contest, spyglass visuals were absolutely hilarious. Loved the ending. That was what I wanted from those two, animosity for the point of humour throughout and an ending which left them both in the same position they were in for most of CotBP, Barbossa with Jack’s ship and Jack with something Barbossa required.

Barbossa – Oh how I loved him. I really don’t realise how much I missed him until he was back. I adored how exasperated he became during the pirate meeting, and the he retained his lack of fear in the face of doom even though he wasn’t immortal anymore. And really, marrying Will and Elizabeth will fighting off Davy Jones’ fish men, seriously one of my favourite moments in a movie ever.

Will – Damn I hated him through the first part of this movie. It was brilliant how he ended up losing the Black Pearl only moments after he won it, making him the shortes serving captain in the show’s history. Really, it wasn’t until he switched sides before the last battle and the proposal scene that I stared to like him again. He really is a sweet character when he’s not back stabbing. I there are some characters out there that people love despite what side they are on, like Jack, and the there is Will who just is not as likable as a morally grey character.

Elizabeth, or should I say King Elizabeth – Elizabeth just rocked through out this entire movie. Loved how she was introduced singing like in Curse. Loved how she loved Will all along (loved how they got the love triangle over and done with in the first hour, I couldn’t have stranded a whole movie devoted to it). Kind of interesting how she, along with Barbossa, were the characters who switched sides the lest during the movie. Seemed she learnt something from the end of DMC. Loved her scene with Bootstrap.

Will and Elizabeth - Awww. They were so sweet. And seriously, that was the greatest wedding ever. And they finally got to have sex!

Bootstrap Bill – I finally got why we are supposed to pity him. His situation is analogous to Alzheimer’s. He’s slowly slipping away from the world, forgetting who is who and what has happened and his son is battling to save him. Once I had that epiphany, I actually warmed to him considerably. However, there is more to come in this post on the two Turner men.

Beckett – It seems that the underling theme of this movie was the little guy against the large and evil multinational corporation, exemplified by Beckett, which is a very interesting theme considering that the movie was one of the most expensive every made, and Disney and Bruckheimer aren’t exactly little guys.

Anyway, he was delightfully evil, remained delightfully unredeemed and his demise was just delightfully done, walking in shocked disbelief that his plan failed while his ship/world fell down around him.

Though calling his ship the Endeavour was a bit off. I’ve been aboard the reconstruction of the HMS Endeavour, it’s the picture on the New Zealand 50c coin, James Cook sailed it. Couldn’t they think of a different name for a ship that is going to get destroyed? The Trump or something?

Davy Jones - Wasn’t really sure what was going on with his character, wasn’t sure what he wanted. I think it’s going to have to be one of those things I have to try and make sense when I see the movie again. CGI was excellent though and I’m glad we got to see Bill Nighy in human form.

Tia Dalma/Calypso - Again, wasn’t sure what was going on at all, or what the point of unleashing her was other than to cause the storm (and even then the storm wasn’t explicitly linked to her). What I do know is that I have so much love for Naomi Harris. She was absolutely awesome throughout. And wow, is she stunningly gorgeous. I think she takes the prize for the best looking in an already incredibly beautiful cast.

Pintell and Ragetti - The pair of them really came into their own in this movie, Pintell getting that hilarious scene where he puts his name in for captain (and “I would vote for you” – aww) and Ragetti being the keeper of Barbossa’s piece of eight and being the one to seduce Calypso. I love those two so much.

Murtogg and Mullroy - I at first felt they were underused, than felt that they shouldn’t have been used at all because even they are not dumb enough to let Jack just nick the chest when they are arguing. But in the end where they just pop up as pirates and join up with the Pintell and Ragetti was brilliant.

Gibbs - Loved how the subverted the Gibbs monologue by giving the dramatic ending to Pintell, nice to know the writers know that Gibb’s main function seems to be to spout out dramatic exposition.

And that final look Jack gives Gibbs, zomg, it contained more hoyay in that moment than the entire Hornblower series, now that is an achievement. Seriously, I can’t be the only one around fandom who sees Jack/Gibbs can I?

The Pearl Crew - Not much to say here other than I adored how they were the ones who rescued Jack because they missed him.

Mercer - Excellent death for such a horrid character.

Sao Feng - Far, far better than I though he was going to be. The fact that he as killed quite early on helped a lot in the formation of this opinion. The fact that he was killed as he was attempting to assault Elizabeth by a cannonball fired under orders from Norrington made his character worth it.

Jack’s Dad - Much better than I thought he was going to be. Cute how he had the dog.

Okay, if you’ve see it, you know what’s coming since my favourite character is Norrington and my second favourite is Governor Swann.

Firstly, where were all their scenes? Did the Governor even get a line before he was killed? Because I can’t remember one. I though they were treated badly in the leaked scrip, but at least they had scenes in the leaked script. It sidelined the Governor’s character badly and made Norrington look a bit like an idiot.

I’m just so disappointed by the lack of the good Governor. Nice that he got to say good bye to Elizabeth though.

Oh Norrington. He got to kiss Elizabeth, and she called him James, and his death by Bootstrap wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. If he had lost in a swordfight, I would have been pissed. Instead the fact he was bludgeoned because he turned to save Elizabeth was actually sort of appropriate, and Elizabeth screaming his name - that was gut-wrenching. Stabbing Davy Jones through the heart was the best response to the “do you feel death?” question, a sort of “Yes I feel death, and you’re damn well going to feel it too.”

But no snark (I really missed snarky Norrington – there was a general lack of snarky humour in this movie, more visual). No swordfight. Not naval battle. No sex and no resurrection. I was sitting there through the entire movie thinking Norrington’s going to show up now. Really. Tia Dalma’s going bring him back from the dead because they’re just not going to leave the character like that, and he didn’t show up.

Really, his death was the only scene that did the character justice in the entire movie. Other than that, I would say the movie really did a great disservice to a brilliant character.

Norrington was, without doubt, the truly good character (in terms of allegiances) in the first movie. It looked like he was going to turn into some sort of Gaston, but he didn’t. In fact, he was the only character in CotBP that acted out of duty and not out of his own interest. He was gentleman and an officer who had one great flaw which wasn’t a flaw at all, he fell in love, followed his heart and loved her so much he let her go. In return everything in his life came falling down around him. But he got a sword out of it, at least.

Then, he made some bad decisions, and he lost everything and he acted out of his own self-interest and nicked the heart and gave it to Beckett. Jack, Elizabeth and Will did far worse things.

But do Jack, Will and Elizabeth have to go through a redemptive arc? No. They get to live. Norrington on the other hand, has to die for his sins. Which would be fine if we knew what those sins were. We can assume that a lot of men under his command went down with the Dauntless (and we can assume his stint in Tortuga was penance for that), but it was never really indicated that he feels guilty about that (other than in a deleted line I heard rumour of). It is quite possible that Norrington did some terrible things while working for Beckett and as Admiral in charge of the Dutchman, but we never see it. So basically, the one sin that Norrington committed that was worth his character for dying for it, was for the first time in the trilogy acting out of his own self-interest and stealing the heart. Considering every other character has done the same sort of things on multiple occasions, that is a rather crap moral.

Not only that, but he was killed by the man who’s son he once pulled out of the water, who’s son he rescued from Barbossa by giving the order to go after him and who’s son he did not hang when he had legal justification to do so. And then Will got his sword (I think), his sword being representative to him of his honour, the one thing he had left when Will had taken everything away from him at the end of CotBP. Will gained everything Norrington had to give, and Norrington ended up dead.

WTF? That was a lame ending for his character. (Though I have figured out a way to bring him back from the dead for fanfic purposes).

Okay, well that’s all the that I can think of right now.

Anyone catch the scene at the end of the credits? Because I was the last one left in the theatre and the staff were giving me looks, so I left before I could catch it.

Comments

[cassiopaya.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, you know, now that you mention it, did Norrington really do anything to be guilty of? Maybe the Dauntless incident was just an accident and James really has nothing to be guilty over. Maybe he never did anything to deserve the short end of the stick? Wouldn't that suck.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I wish we actually knew what went on with the hurricane. Actually, I had this idea for a fic I’m working on at the moment in which it’s not your average type hurricane, it was sent to eliminate him. But regardless, I think James is the kind of guy to blame himself even if it was some form of accident.