Shawn and I went out on a date yesterday to see Pirates III. I had resolved not to see this one until I had gotten some positive feedback, as I was utterly disappointed in the second. Many people have tried to tell me that one cannot judge the quality of a sequel based on the first movie in a series. Bullocks. A sequel, by definition, is a continuation of a story. By employing the advantage of recycling characters, setting, and/or plot element from a previous film, you open yourself up to the disadvantage of direct comparison to the original. Some do it well and others do it appallingly poorly, and there you have it.
Pirates III has been out for 3 weeks now and I’ve received a wide array of commentary on it.
- “Fantastic. I loved it.”
- “While it was nowhere near as good as the first, it was at least better than the second.”
- “I don’t know where she gets off saying that. It was exactly the same as the second.”
- “Not a great film, but as pirate adventures go, it swashes a good buckle.”
However, everyone agreed that if you’re going to see a film like this at all, you’d better do it on the big screen. So with some gracious friends agreeing to babysit, Shawn and I took ourselves to the theater yesterday for a matinee.
I tend to be rather critical of movies, I find. At least on the sliding scale that is created by my typical knot of friends. What shall you think of me, then, when I tell you that I loved it? Perhaps I don’t get out of the house enough, but I was thoroughly entertained for 3 hours. It made me laugh, had some spectacular effects, and some unexpected plot twists. And I must say that I really loved the costuming concepts they used for Keira Knightley. At one moderately tense moment as the pirate Elizabeth Swan is shimmying across a rope away from attackers, I found myself embarrassed by my own rather girlish thought: “Wow. Her hair looks fantastic!” (Go ahead, Chezza, You can slap me for that one.) But you know me... The way to my heart is often through the eye of a sewing needle and that’s the only excuse I can offer for myself.
So, thank you very much, Disney, for restoring my faith in pirates. I’d thank you even more to leave the ride alone... but I know you won’t. Sigh.
And speaking of Disneyland, I heard a rumor that they are changing Tom Sawyer’s Island to something about Davy Crockett and the river pirates. Someone out there who knows more about this than me, please fill me in, especially if you can tell that I’ve been grievously misinformed. Anyone have pictures of the damage?
Or I could get off my butt, do a google search and answer my own question. Sigh. I don’t suppose it would be too much to ask to get you people to leave well enough alone, and go put your energy someplace it’s actually needed? Apparently so. Well, it will always be Injun Joe’s cave to me, no matter what the sign says.