PotC: At World's End

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last night and I loved it. I must warn you now, I can't guarantee that this will be a spoiler-free review. I try to avoid them, but there are some plot-points that I may bring up. You have been warned.

To start, I believe this to be the best of the trilogy (let's hope it stays a trilogy... fucking Bruckheimer). The first was fantastic, revolutionary. As film_geek puts it "Pirates is the 'Indiana Jones' of this generation". The second was less than stellar... To be honest, I hated it when I first saw it. Watching it a second and third time raised my opinion of it, but it wasn't nearly as good as the first. The biggest problem with the second was that it was messy. At World's End, though still jumpy, keeps on track, and stays with the spirit of the first. The plot wasn't that good (but, to be honest, I don't believe any of the PotC plots were intriguing), but it was the acting, visual effects, and action that brought it up a notch.

The acting was brilliant, especially on Johnny Depp's part, and there are a couple instances during the movie where Jack takes from the pages of one of my favourite movies, Secret Window. Geoffrey Rush was great, though didn't match his performance in the first. Barbossa definitely had his moments, but overall felt somewhat forgotten, though it's not like they could've given him much more screen time. Orlando Bloom and Kira Knightly were just as annoying as they were in the last two, though Will actually seemed determined this time. The two have good chemistry, but the characters have just gotten annoying. Bill Nighy is fucking amazing. He did so well showing the weakness of Davey Jones, whilst staying vicious and somewhat frightening. The biggest problem I found about the second movie was that Jones didn't seem as prominent of a villain as Barbossa, but he makes up for that in this film. All of the other secondary characters were great, except Tia Dalma. She seemed randomly broken from the very beginning, as if she all of a sudden started loving Jones again. Her attitude seemed out-of-place from the second film, and it pissed me off because she was one of my favourite new characters. The new pirates were cool, but again weren't elaborated on as much as I would've liked. Chou Yun-Fat 's character seemed to be a big part, but was forgotten about rather quickly, and then killed off soon after that. I think Depp's performance makes up for all of the bad. He really deserves the Oscar this year.

As for the special effects, they were amazing. Davey Jones looks better than he did in the last film, as do his crew. The ships are fucking awesome. Incomprehensible. The storm and maelstrom were cool as well. I was very impressed. Also (referring to Jack's performance) the numerous Captains were amazing. For one guy acting out over 20 parts, it was uber-impressive, and looked pretty damn real. It was a high-budget pirate movie... there's not much more that can be said. It looked good.

The plot was... meh. As I said before, I've never been to keen on the PotC plots. They're hokey, but the movie is meant to be fun, and it is successful in that sense. The plot doesn't really matter with the Pirate movies, as it is all about the thrill of the action and the love of the characters. It was one of the better plots (whether it is better than the first is still undecided), but it still had its problems.

The action was fun, fast, and amazing. Some of the best sequences I've ever seen. The final sea-battle was epic. I was so impressed, it was fucking awesome. It was so well done... I can't say much more than that. If you don't want to see the movie, whatever, but you need to see this battle. It is the coolest ship fight I've ever seen. YouTube it, pirate it, I don't care. You must watch this sequence.

All in all, it was a good movie. I think that the performances overall push it above the heap, but I still love the first. If anything, they're equal. It will take a second viewing to decide whether it is better. I highly recommend this film, it's easily worth the $10.

By the way, there are a couple things I wanted to mention that don't really fit into the other categories. The opening sequence is amazing. I had shivers, it was awesome. Unfortunately, once it passed, the movie started out a little slow and rocky. Other than that, it was a great ride. Oh, and there are so many sexual references and innuendos... A little edgy for Disney, but still awesome.

I hope you enjoyed the review, and get to see the movie sometime soon. Have a great weekend!

-Brandon

MAY TWO-FOUR

This year was far better than last. It was awesome, for the most part. A friend of mine has a huge farm, and we camped out in the back fields (a good twenty minute walk from the road). We bought two 20L kegs... that's right, I said TWO KEGS. And we pretty much finished them both (there was maybe a cup of two left in the last one). It was awesome.

The first night was alright. There were a couple people there I had never met before, and other people I hadn't seen for a long time. Unfortunately, the friend who was hosting the party was forced to bring his brother and his little friends. Fucking brats, in my opinion. Anyways, it started to rain, and my friend Wes lives right next door, so we went over to his place to get food and stuff. By the time we were going to head back, it was pouring rain, so we just chilled out at his place and went to sleep. I didn't have a whole lot to drink, but it was still pretty good.

The second day is where it got interesting. I wandered back over around 2, and apparently a couple of my friends headed home to get clothes, food, and other various supplies. When they got back, we started drinking. I was quite drunk before the next group of people showed up and the party started. In fact, we polished off the first keg around 4. We cut down some trees (very scary when intoxicated), found a coyote skeleton (I snagged the femur), got a fuck-ton of wood in preparation for the cold night ahead (as we were not very prepared the previous evening), and played some manhunt. Eventually we got a wicked fire going, and hung out for a couple hours (still drinking, of course).

Around 8 more people started showing up, and the party got going. Unfortunately with the introduction of more people there was more booze, and we had some puking (not by me, thankfully). I met some cool new people, and reunited with old friends. It was a good night. It got a little chilly, but we huddled together and had a good ol' time. And with everyone's help, the cleanup went pretty fast. It was an awesome weekend, and I'm hoping to do the same sort of thing at my place next weekend.

-Brandon

I'M BACK!!

My dad cancelled our old dial-up account with Bell, and for some retardedly random reason, they decided to wipe out our entire internet account. So we've been out of internet for over a week. We are back online now, thankfully. And the house is all networked up, so we can all surf at the same time, rather than dragging the modem all over the place.

I still haven't heard from York whether I've been accepted (nor do I think I'm going to). I did apply to Staples, so hopefully I'll hear from them in the coming weeks as to whether I have a job. I really hope I get a job, because if I'm not working, I have no idea what I'll be doing next year (if I don't get accepted).

Well, that's about it. I figured I'd let you guys know where I've been and whatnot. Hopefully we can go a month or two without any more incompetence on Bell's part.

-Brandon