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elfsSo, having seen number 2 last night, tonight Omaha and I went out to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The film proceeds where the last one left off, with Barbossa leading a team with Will and Elizabeth off to the ends of the world to find Jack Sparrow and bring him back from the dead, because only Jack Sparrow knows how to take down Davy Jones.
I'm not going to post any spoilers because doing so would be pointless: there is a plot here, but it isn't the point of the film. You go in to let masters of the genre spend a lot of money poking your pineal gland as hard as they can over and over. The trouble is that you can only poke at it so often before it runs dry, and that's effectively what happens in the end. It is no spoiler to say that there's a huge, amazing battle at the end. That's the whole bloody point, isn't it? But the battle goes on for far, far too long. By the time the most astounding part of the beautifuly costumed computer-generated, green-screen stunted, Hans Zimmer-scored spectacle is before your eyes you've run out of awe. The shock has drained. It's all pretty pictures, but the ongoingness of it has successfully detached you from any emotional investment in the lives of the characters.
You've ceased to care.
This is not to say you shouldn't see it. It is beautifully and magnificently costumed-- oh, the costumes! I love good costume work. (It never ceases to disappoint me when SF writers spend pages and pages impressing us with descriptions of architecture but don't really deliver on the clothes.) The sets are gorgeous, the CGI work quite nice. But when you've started to appreciate the film for its technical delivery, the real point of movie-going has quite failed. And that, unfortunately, is where At World's End leaves you when the credits roll.
The film proceeds where the last one left off, with Barbossa leading a team with Will and Elizabeth off to the ends of the world to find Jack Sparrow and bring him back from the dead, because only Jack Sparrow knows how to take down Davy Jones.
I'm not going to post any spoilers because doing so would be pointless: there is a plot here, but it isn't the point of the film. You go in to let masters of the genre spend a lot of money poking your pineal gland as hard as they can over and over. The trouble is that you can only poke at it so often before it runs dry, and that's effectively what happens in the end. It is no spoiler to say that there's a huge, amazing battle at the end. That's the whole bloody point, isn't it? But the battle goes on for far, far too long. By the time the most astounding part of the beautifuly costumed computer-generated, green-screen stunted, Hans Zimmer-scored spectacle is before your eyes you've run out of awe. The shock has drained. It's all pretty pictures, but the ongoingness of it has successfully detached you from any emotional investment in the lives of the characters.
You've ceased to care.
This is not to say you shouldn't see it. It is beautifully and magnificently costumed-- oh, the costumes! I love good costume work. (It never ceases to disappoint me when SF writers spend pages and pages impressing us with descriptions of architecture but don't really deliver on the clothes.) The sets are gorgeous, the CGI work quite nice. But when you've started to appreciate the film for its technical delivery, the real point of movie-going has quite failed. And that, unfortunately, is where At World's End leaves you when the credits roll.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-09 02:33 pm (UTC)