POTC: At World's End (heavy spoilers alert)

[chernabog_ca]

Least ye be warned, there be spoilers ahead….

I just got in from At World’s End. Went to the 8pm ‘advanced’ screening. Theatre was packed and ready to go. Good crowd, people were dressed up, making noise during the trailers (before they started, not during). After about 4 trailers the Feature Presentation animation comes on and the place goes nuts. Cue the Walt Disney Pictures logo. Cue the Bruckheimer logo. Cue Nicolas Cage! The crowd sort of let out a unified WTF! It was the trailer for National Treasure 2. Then let’s cue the Pixar logo. Ratatouille trailer! Disney attached trailers to the print! Natives were starting to get restless. Kind of funny.

Now we finally get to the full Disney pictures logo and we are good to go.

Being a huge Pirates fan I had huge expectations for this movie and I can’t say that I was disappointed. One thing noticeably different is the fact that this is a much more serious movie and a lot darker and let’s you know this right from the start. It’s the most violent of them all and at times seems like a departure from the first two. Mind you, Dead Man’s Chest was dark at times as well. This one just didn’t have the “fun” moments in it like the cannibals. The whole 2h45 runtime is set on one thing and that’s the get us to the huge finale. Don’t get me wrong, there are still the funny moments and Jack is Jack.

The first half of the movie does drag a little as the crew venture to Singapore and then onto Davey Jones’ locker to fetch back Jack. The journey to the locker is interesting and has some great visuals. The whole locker sequence was interesting but could have maybe been cut short just a little. The multiple Jacks was funny at first but I found when they turned up later on in the film to be a little annoying and perhaps were added to get a few laughs and to give us just a little more Jack.

Once the crew gets back from the locker, the film starts to pick up. It’s too bad about the Kraken. I was a little sad to see that we weren’t going to see it this time. I’m still wondering why Beckett had Jones kill it. Was it a sign of servitude? I found the film really picked up once Davey was on screen more. He’s such a great character.

There’s a lot of double crossing in this movie. Every character seems to have his or her own agenda and will stop at nothing to fulfill it including betraying anyone and everyone. Just was I would assume real pirates would have done. Now it can be a little confusing if you’re not quite paying attention. If you got confused by the Mission: Impossible, you might also get confused here as well.

The battle between the Pearl and the Dutchman in the middle of the Maelstrom is unbelievable. What a sequence. There is so much going on but it never looses it’s focus. The fight between Jones and Jack was great although I wish it was a little longer. Will becoming captain of the Dutchman at the end wasn’t something I was expecting but I’m glad that it wasn’t Jack who did it.

The ending was fitting and a good way to close out the trilogy. Jack loses the Pearl again to Barbossa and we see him in a little boat just as we saw him when we were first introduced to Captain Jack. Him singing was “Yo-Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me” was cool too and the end pretty much brought us full circle. It does leave it nice and open if they ever decide to prolong the franchise, which I think they shouldn’t do. At least not yet.

Performances on a whole are solid. Rush is amazing as Barbossa and I was glad to see him back. Johnny is Jack! ‘Nuff said. Keith Richards is fantastic in is bit! The crowd went nuts when he made his appearance. Chow Yun-Fat is good although his character isn’t a major one. With so many characters involved unfortunately left some characters to almost bit parts like Bootstrap and Norrington.

I think this is probably one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores. I had bought the soundtrack on Tuesday off iTunes but only had given it one listen to before tonight. After hearing it in the movie and listening to it now, it’s fantastic. He blended all the themes from the first two movies perfectly with the ATW theme, which on it’s own is great!

One little touch that I loved was the tribute to the ride in the movie. When they go over the waterfall, the picture fades to black and all you hear are sounds from the ride! I thought it was a nice nod and fans of the ride will recognize it right away.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Not quite what I was expecting to be honest. Didn’t think it would be this dark. It’s borderline on being a family movie like the first two were and the whole web of double crosses and little twists might confuse some kids as well as adults I’m sure.

I’m sure I will see it again sometime this weekend.

[clfred]

I saw this movie last night and enjoyed this movie very much except for one aspect.

I thought it was a very good movie(8 or 8.5 out of 10) with lots of laughs, lots of action, good CGI(there were a couple of scenes that looked a little off-no spoilers here), always had me wondering who was good or bad or whom was helping whom, and all this at a pace that was never boring.

The only aspect of the movie that left me wanting was how Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan ended up. But this is nothing a Second Trilogy won't fix.

Later

P.S. In regards to the trailers that played before this movie, I had one big dissappointment and one great surprise. The dissapointment was no Transformers trailer and the surprise was a good teaser for National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets(had no idea this trailer was to play here and I am so looking forward to this movie)

[chernabog_ca]

Ah but we do know how Elizabeth and Will end up. You had to stay to the end of the credits where it shows Elizabeth 10 years later with a son who look to be living back in England when Will shows up. Short scene but great none the less. Also pretty much leaves the two of them out of any possible sequels.

I went and saw it again tonight. I enjoyed it much more tonight than I did on Thursday. All the little things that bugged me no longer do and I picked up a few things that I missed.

[clfred]

I really wish you hadn't spoiled that scene. I didn't learn of this scene until after I had seen the movie on Friday and I was looking forward to going back and seeing the movie again to watch that very scene. Oh well, I guess I will just have to pretend to be surprized.

Later

[legolasfan411]

I think its unfortunate that this one didn't do very good in theaters. I think a lot of it also has to do with dumb critics reviews that came out a day or two early, and a lot of dumb people listen to them. That didn't happen with Spiderman 3, so I don't know why it should have happened with Pirates.

[andros]

Very poor movie. Even worse than the second part.
The plot line is awful, effects made no special influence.
Despite the brilliant performance by Johnny Depp who managed to save the film from being nothing, overall acting is weak, especially Knightley's. Some scenes made the whole audience rolling on the floor laughing. The best one is Swann's "speech" before the battle.

Don't waste 3 hours of your life on this! You can spend it much better.

[chernabog_ca]

I don't get it either. Spider-man 3 is a poor movie in my opinion and I'm surprised word of mouth didn't effect it.

I blame Disney a little in the way they were marketing it. We didn't get a trailer till March, no teaser before hand. It's almost like they figured people will just see it because it's Pirates. There was very little hype around it. No real tie-ins to movie except for the Volvo contest again. Last year there was the McDonald's promotions (which Disney no longer has a contract with McDonald's anymore) and the VISA contest. I'm not saying that directly relates to success at the box office but it does help create buzz around a movie.

Maybe it was too soon for it?

[bloss]

after the credits, there is a scene that happens 10 years later...

[editman]

Like I said in the other thread, the main reason At World's End didn't perform better/as well as Dead Man's Chest is because it has to compete with both Shrek the Third and Spider-Man 3. Movie-goers just have too much choice to choose from. If it opened before Spider-Man 3, I reckon it'd be At World's End which made 250m+ at opening weekend.

Poor reviews and under-advetising, though in some way are part of the reasons the film underperforms, aren't the main blows. In fact I'm glad Disney didn't show a lot of At World's End as Sony did with its campaign for Spider-Man 3. I'm still mad at Sony for over-advetising Spider-Man 3: they practically showed all the good bits of the film in countless trailers and clips. What's left in the film are fillers and crap. Sony ruined the movie themselves, but they got the higher ground (ie a better release date), so they won out.

And don't tell me At World's End is crap with poor SFX and acting. Surely people are entitled to have their opinions. To me, all three movies are pretty much the same in terms of their quality of SFX and acting. It's about whether one is into it or not. I wasn't into the first movie at all when I saw it in cinema filled with a fullhouse of audiences who had a ball. Second one's better for me. Third one's even better. Of course that doesn't mean other people won't find the opposite.

My point is, just because a movie doesn't do well in the box office doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie, and vice versa. And get one thing clear: At World's End is NOT doing poorly at the box office. It's just that people have hopes which are sky high, and it doesn't live up to these almost unreasonable expectations.

[jmcc]

I like the movie

[clfred]

I just want address this statement that this movie didn't do very well this past weekend.

First, I will address the Thursday night screenings. This was a serious mistake by Disney because by most accounting practices this money gets lost in the weekend(Friday to Sunday or Monday in this case) totals. They should have done like Spiderman 3 and just had Midnight screenings. In reality that is what these Thursday night screenings and that is why I will include these numbers in the weekend totals.

Domestic Numbers:
The three day total = approx. $128,000,000(which is about $8 million less than Pirates 2 did over the same period, not too bad)

The four day total = approx. $153,000,000(sets a new record for Memorial Day weekend, not too bad either)

International Numbers:
In six days = $251,000,000(a new record)

Total Numbers:
In its first six days of release = $404,000,000(a new record)

And as editman has pointed out, all these numbers have come with stiff competition from Spiderman 3 & Shrek 3, competition Pirates 2 didn't have last year. Also remember Pirates 3 won't have any stiff competition for the next few weeks, until Fantastic Four 2 hits the theaters on June 15.

Just my 2 cents

[Man_of_Steel]

I love how a movie that makes $120 million plus in one weekend is doing poorly.

I thought the movie was great. How do I know this? I had the worst movie-going experience of my life and I still enjoyed it. I ended up sitting in front of a group of twelve year olds who apparently didn't know that you aren't supposed to talk during the movie. Their dad made no effort to shut them up and then on top of that they started throwing candy around. In spite of that I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

I thought the story was great. Like someone said above I think the scene at Davey Jones' Locker could have been a little shorter. One other thing that annoyed me a bit was the constant talk of destiny. We knew something special would happen to Will after Tia Dalma's comments in DMC but it seemed that in this one everyone had a destiny to fulfill. It is a given that everyone is going to end up where they need to be but do you have to constantly say it is their destiny?

I thought they did a good job building up the EIC by showing how the pirates had to constantly hide. I was a little dissapointed that Norrington didn't have a bigger role. I thought he deserved a better death. He should have been leading a ship alongside the Dutchman in the final battle and just as all hell broke loose he should have switched sides.

Those are just a few things that I would have liked to see. I loved the movie and will probably see it another two or three more times while it is still playing.

[Haazhel_Thorn]

... In reality that is what these Thursday night screenings and that is why I will include these numbers in the weekend totals.
...
The four day total = approx. $153,000,000(sets a new record for Memorial Day weekend, not too bad either) ...

JP please read this, he speaks wise and true.

[odj_310388]

I really didn't want to enjoy this movie after the catastrophe of the 2nd but ended up liking it. Yes it has its flaws, and yes it was no where near as good as the 1st but it was still good enough to watch. Some things really pissed me off though, the lots of Jacks was really annoying, as soon as he killed one of them and he was walking around on the boat on his own then there should have been no more of them. Plus when that guy is walking down the stairs as the ship is exploding around him, there should be about a billion pieces of shrapnel in him, why wasn't there?

[redbear]

In reality that is what these Thursday night screenings and that is why I will include these numbers in the weekend totals.

Domestic Numbers:
The three day total = approx. $128,000,000(which is about $8 million less than Pirates 2 did over the same period, not too bad)

The four day total = approx. $153,000,000(sets a new record for Memorial Day weekend, not too bad either)

your figures are off-sided for the 4-day. if you have the need to include thursday screenings into the 'weekend' total, then you also need to do the same for every other movie you compared it to, in order for your facts to be straight. if you don't, then your facts are tainted.