Dead Man's Chest
Well, it's taken four days and I'm not sure I've put in everything I wanted or even made sense (probably because I'm still not sure what I thought of some events, and my mind is completely boggled over others) but hey, it's thoughts on a film, not a PhD thesis.
Many spoilers, obviously)
As far as Dead Man's Chest is concerned, all* I can say is: prepare to be confused.
On Friday night I went to see it with some of the girls I went to school with, killing two birds with one stone by taking David in to meet his friends who were also seeing the film. Critics and I don't generally agree, so I'm going to go my own merry way regardless of their opinions and say that I loved it. I had tried not to get too excited about it, since I'd heard some rumours of things that didn't sound good *cough*Norrington*cough* but I was expecting it to be entertaining, at least. It definitely was that; I don't think I've grinned so much in any other film-at least since CotBP-and I kept laughing and then stifling it when no-one else in my row did =) I think I need to see it again to remember the specific moments that I found most amusing (heck, I just want to see it again, but what's wrong with that?)...but any time Johnny Depp is on screen (from the first moment-loved his entrance!) should about cover it for the time being. There weren't, perhaps, quite as many sidesplitting one-liners, but that might be partly to do with the loss of surprise factor; in the first film Jack was so outlandish pretty much everything he said stuck in my head. Then, too, was it just me or is this film much darker? Both literally and metaphorically...they only seemed to see sunlight on the desert island, while for a Disney adventure movie it had quite a lot of...theme. Characterisation. Serious stuff like that-and of course, waaay too much plot. But I think I'll probably enjoy it even more with a second viewing, since I'm going to try to suspend disbelief and just run with all the strangeness that bothered me first time around.
Having said that, might as well do my what-the-heck-was-going-on-there? part now and get it out of the way. From the Brontë/Dickensian opening of Elizabeth's soggy and abandoned wedding (I'm thinking somewhere between Jane Eyre and Miss Havisham) to the final shot in the witch's Hovel of Doom, the producer's mission in life seems to have been to Mess with my Head, an aim of which I strongly disapprove. With the arrival of the East India Trading Company complication, things suddenly got much worse.
1) Just who is that guy in the wig with the weird mouth, and why is he familiar?
Answer: He's called...Beckett, I think, and has apparently managed to gain the rank of...baron? Viscount? Who knows. He's somehow involved with the EITC and doesn't like...well, anyone, really. Oh, and he's familiar because he's Mr. Collins. OH! Of course, he's peeved with Elizabeth because she rejected him!
2) How on earth did the EITC gain authority over both the Navy and the civilian government, to the extent that they have arrest warrants for a Commodore and the governor's family? Did these come from London-are they genuine? In which case, why does Collins-guy have them? The Governor was able to grant Will clemency in the first film, so why not again?
3) Why is Collins-guy after Will, Elizabeth and Norrington but not the Governor? Fine, N. was the aforementioned Commodore and shouldn't have given that one-day's start. Will, admittedly, was the one running round the gallows with a fancy hat and a sword. But Elizabeth only pretended to faint, and stepped over to stand by her soon-to-be fiancé. I mean, women weren't allowed anything much in the way of position or authority-so how did she suddenly gain responsibility for Jack? She only had the misfortune to be captured and kidnapped on various occasions, and they could hardly execute her for that... (Assuming the past-life Collins flashbacks aren't a reasonable explanation.) The Governor was really far more to blame than she; assisting Jack's escape didn't put him in irons, but assisting Elizabeth's did. Hmm.
4) Why was Jack to be pardoned and allowed to live as a privateer instead of being hanged? Was this on Collins-guy's own initiative, because he wanted the compass? If so, we're once again back at the question of where his authority to sign King's Pardons came from. Also, were Will and Elizabeth to be unofficially let off the hook as part of this deal? The Governor didn't seem to think so, but Will did. Was Elizabeth going to fill in the pardon for Will? If so, why hadn't she already done it? It seems as though she wasn't too convinced of either Lord Thingy's honour or Will's ability to do whatever it was he was doing, after all. Who is actually telling the truth, who's lying, and who's just confused, poor pet? (Apart from me.)
5) Having let Will go, who was going to ensure he ever came back? They were awfully trusting on his love for Elizabeth... Norrington was also wanted, but at some point (before or after the wedding?) escaped and was hanging round Tortuga, from whence he, Elizabeth and Jack were allowed to leave.
The number of quests and bargains going on in this film was phenomenal...as far as I understand it, things went something like this. Lord Beckett sends Will after Jack to get the Amazing Broken Compass in exchange for Elizabeth's freedom, and Jack's right to a letter of marque. Jack will only exchange the compass for the original of a sruffily-drawn key (no idea how they were meant to identify it using that rag...could have been any key, as far as I could see.) Anyway, he wants the key so he can open the chest-which is also what Lord Beckett is after, in a roundabout way. (Apparently the compass hasn't been working for Jack.) Elizabeth, showing admirable initiative, steals what I think was an ordinary basic tuppeny-ha'penny king's pardon (although it might have been the aforementioned L. of M.) and swaps Beckett's signature for no bullet in the head. Attagirl. Jack, meanwhile, has sent naive, unsuspecting Will off to find Davey Jones and ends up bargaining 100 souls (including Will's) in exchange for his own. After she reaches the Pearl, things begin to go down for Elizabeth: Jack somehow ends up with the papers, and persuades her that the best way to rescue Will is to find the chest (no idea how he was planning on getting the key, unless he was trusting that the Will Infiltration Plan hadn't, after all, gone completely up the Swannee) and they set off, the compass apparently working for Elizabeth-for the time being, she's pretty good at controlling her emotions, apparently. Norrington, on the other hand, seems willing to bargain just about anything in order to regain his position and honour, not realising that in the process he's losing it. Sad effects of too much rum. Once again, we have circled back to the question of how the EITC can hire&fire the Navy. It's probably easiest just to go with corruption/the writers have no idea what they're talking about so their version of history mangles our heads.
Oh, and somewhere in there, Will managed to bargain eternal service (the whole eternal/100 years dichotomy also confused me, but that's a minor issue) for the key, but lost. Or something. But when his father agreed to take the punishment, Will was somehow allowed to go free. Davey must have been having an off day, or perhaps Jack's whole he's-going-to-get-married-don't-you-remember-what-it's-like-to-be-in-love-worst-thing-you-can-do-is-let-him-go speech had more of an effect than he thought.
Confused? Don't say I didn't warn you. ;)
More questions:
Does the dog get eaten? It had better not!
What's Norrington going to do? Is he actually on Lord Thingy's side?
What's the Governor planning on doing while all this is going on? Again, how could the government be taken over like that?
Just what is the law that dictates that however many crews Jack loses, the main characters will survive?
How did Barbossa gte off the Isla de Muerte? Was he already gone when Jack & Co. collected the undead monkey? How are things going to work out with Jack and Barbossa both wanting the Pearl? What's his motivation going to be for rescuing Jack?
What I thought of the characters-more or less.
Jack-He still makes me laugh, and the machiavellian-ness of his plots still burns my brain. At the end of the first film I wondered how Will and Elizabeth were so sure that he was a good man; this film, at least to begin with, seemd to confirm his lack of conscience. Some of his actions helped redeem him, though...he did come back to the Pearl that time (just what was the compass showing?) and seemed to at least be trying to get Will out of the mess he'd succeeded in getting him into. In other words, as far as his character's concerned, it's pretty much business as usual. Elizabeth's claim that he actually wants to be good was interesting, though...are all his plottings for the purposes of self-aggrandisement, or is he trying, in a sneakily roundabout way, to be good? Did he have a clever plan to get everyone out of this one alive, or was it all directed to saving his own skin? In the first film, once you'd watched it through, you could (mostly) see that he'd been shifting things along and playing both sides off, but had wanted it to work out pretty much the way it did...this time, I have no idea what his original plan was.
I loved the way they built on lines from the first film, like "And then they made me their chief," and the incident of Elizabeth and the Rum (one of my favourite lines was Jack's "Hide the rum!") and explained the "broken" compass.
Elizabeth-was developed quite well from CotBP, I thought. It was interesting to see the rebellious streak come out, and the damsel in distress once again taking matters into her own fairly resourceful hands; escaping from the carriage-with a gun, no less-to "negotiate" with Beckett, and manipulating the sailors' superstitions to get to Tortuga. She manages quite well as a sword-fighting boy, but I generally prefer emotions, motivations and Cunning Plans (TM). Also loved the part on the island where she tried to attract the men's attention by pretending to faint-clearly it only works in a dress, or else she's just lost her touch. I was slightly worried by the whole episode with Jack, the compass and the kiss...as far as I could gather, the thing started pointing to him instead of to the chest, which vexed her-and while we reassured each other that the kiss was only part of her devious plot to trap Jack, I'm not actually so sure. The flirtation in CotBP was amusing, but it isn't in Jack's nature to remember a woman for more than five minutes, and Elizabeth's meant to be with Will, so I wasn't too keen on that part. Whatever the reason, she's abandoned the position she and Will originally held, of being morally above the rest, so I'm quite keen to see how that develops in 3.
Will-looked even better than before ;) I read some reviews that went through the whole Will-is-as-lively-and-3D-as-cardboard rigmarole, but then they said the same thing about Elizabeth...I don't agree, either way. I liked the scenes with Bootstrap Bill and was glad that Will got to be more than Jack's Prince Charming/Humble Blacksmith foil. After CotBP I was fairly sure that BB would be appearing, although I'd bet on him cutting himself off the cannon and wading to shore, but hey, we can't have everything. The interaction with his father allowed Will to do more than save Elizabeth; I liked his character development here...neglecting the amazing seafood crew wandering around, you could almost have thought it was a serious film, in those parts. Interestingly, after all the hullaballoo about Will being so like his father, they turned out to be quite different-and I don't just mean that Orlando Bloom and Stellan thingummy from King Arthur look nothing alike. Bootstrap seems to be stuck in a vicious circle, too weak to stand up for what's right until it's too late. He didn't support Jack until Jack had already been marooned, and only succeeded in getting himself thrown overboard, then he does a deal with DJ to save his own skin and doesn't defy him until the point where it only made things worse for him and Will. Both father and son seem to have a conscience, moral centre, basic sense of loyalty-whatever, but only Will seems to have the strength to act on what he knows to be right. Despite the end of CotBP, Will also retains his issues about piracy-circumstances may have forced him to befriend pirates and half-become one himself, but you still get the impression that he disapproves on principle. Maybe the fact that it was for piracy that his father abandoned them has exacerbated his dislike?
And come on, you gotta sympathise with the poor boy when, after nearly getting himself killed (again. I've lost count of how many times) to save his girlfriend, she goes off and starts kissing Jack. (Never mind, Will, there's plenty of people who'd be willing to take her place ;) ) That's part of the reason why I can't decide whether this film is more fairytale-fantasy than the first or not...the end of CotBP was the "happy ever after", while DMC is after after. There's Davey Jones and the Kraken, of course, to set against the skeletal pirates, but W&E seem to be a little more in the real world.
At Tia Dalma's at the end, does he drink to Jack with the rest?
What's the odds Will is going to end up captaining some vessel or other in the third film? He seems to be quite good at taking over the reins. Wheel. Whatever. Did it on the Interceptor in CotBP, and on the Pearl this time around.
Norrington-where is he, and what have you done with him? Actually, I could cope with him being chucked out of the Navy and even with the stubble&rum, but the way his morals are heading in the third film is not looking good. Better an honourable scruffbag than a treacherous ice-cream wig guy! I was glad to see bits of his sardonic humour still lingered, even when he had sunk to taking orders from Jack on a regular basis, as opposed to only when Jack was holding girlfriend hostage. Speaking of which, he's either got over Elizabeth, or is too drunk&miserable to care. Brain sharpened by the end of the film, though, when he was stealing the heart...but how did he get off the island? For the trouble Jack had with being marooned in the first film, people seem to get around the islands terribly easily-and quickly.
Pintel & Ragetti-have apparently decided to be back on Jack's side. Was v. pleased to see them again =) Ragetti's bit about illiterate people getting credit for trying to read the Bible upside down was...pretty funny, actually.
I liked Tia Dalma, I liked that the Kraken and the Flying Dutchman were in it, and I was so glad that the monkey is back!
Some parts I really loved-
Elizabeth's facial expressions as she attempts to manipulate the rather dim sailors; the flaming Tortuga she leaves on the deck.
Will's discovery of the quickest way to get down rigging: stick your father's trusty dagger in the sail and let go.
Jack-kebab smashing through the bridges.
The hilarious bit in the bone cages, especially with the classical music playing over their attempts to get up, the race up the cliff and the roll down the hill.
The three-way sword fight and the bit on the wheel, particularly the way every now and again everyone stops what they're doing to watch it go past =)
P&R stealing the chest while the boys are fighting and Elizabeth's in huffs & histrionics.
Some lines I also really loved-
Jack: Complications arose, ensued, were overcome.
Beckett: Jack Sparrow
Will&Elizabeth: Captain!
Tia Dalma: I require payment.
Jack Sparrow: Look.
[shoots the monkey]
Jack Sparrow: An undead monkey!
Tia Dalma: The payment is fair...
Jack: "Where's the monkey? I want to shoot something!"
Jack Sparrow: Mind the boat.
Will Turner: [to Gibbs] Mind the boat.
Gibbs: [to Ragetti] Mind the boat.
Ragetti: [to Pintel] Mind the boat.
Pintel: [to an anonymous sailor] Mind the boat.
Sunburned Sailor: [to Marty] Mind the boat.
Marty: [to Cotton's parrot] Mind the boat.
Cotton's Parrot: [to Cotton] Mind the boat.
[It flies off, leaving Cotton to pout and sit back down in the boat]
Will: "I won't leave without Jack!" *spots Jack fleeing towards them with several score of hungry cannibals behind him* "Time to go!"
Jack Sparrow: [to Norrington] What are you doing here?
Norrington: You hired me. I can't help it if your standards are lax.
Jack Sparrow: You smell funny.
Elizabeth: There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.
Jack: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.
Jack: Hello Beastie!
Jack, to Norrington: I'm still rooting for you!
*clearly that wasn't meant to be taken literally, since I've wandered on this far.
Many spoilers, obviously)
As far as Dead Man's Chest is concerned, all* I can say is: prepare to be confused.
On Friday night I went to see it with some of the girls I went to school with, killing two birds with one stone by taking David in to meet his friends who were also seeing the film. Critics and I don't generally agree, so I'm going to go my own merry way regardless of their opinions and say that I loved it. I had tried not to get too excited about it, since I'd heard some rumours of things that didn't sound good *cough*Norrington*cough* but I was expecting it to be entertaining, at least. It definitely was that; I don't think I've grinned so much in any other film-at least since CotBP-and I kept laughing and then stifling it when no-one else in my row did =) I think I need to see it again to remember the specific moments that I found most amusing (heck, I just want to see it again, but what's wrong with that?)...but any time Johnny Depp is on screen (from the first moment-loved his entrance!) should about cover it for the time being. There weren't, perhaps, quite as many sidesplitting one-liners, but that might be partly to do with the loss of surprise factor; in the first film Jack was so outlandish pretty much everything he said stuck in my head. Then, too, was it just me or is this film much darker? Both literally and metaphorically...they only seemed to see sunlight on the desert island, while for a Disney adventure movie it had quite a lot of...theme. Characterisation. Serious stuff like that-and of course, waaay too much plot. But I think I'll probably enjoy it even more with a second viewing, since I'm going to try to suspend disbelief and just run with all the strangeness that bothered me first time around.
Having said that, might as well do my what-the-heck-was-going-on-there? part now and get it out of the way. From the Brontë/Dickensian opening of Elizabeth's soggy and abandoned wedding (I'm thinking somewhere between Jane Eyre and Miss Havisham) to the final shot in the witch's Hovel of Doom, the producer's mission in life seems to have been to Mess with my Head, an aim of which I strongly disapprove. With the arrival of the East India Trading Company complication, things suddenly got much worse.
1) Just who is that guy in the wig with the weird mouth, and why is he familiar?
Answer: He's called...Beckett, I think, and has apparently managed to gain the rank of...baron? Viscount? Who knows. He's somehow involved with the EITC and doesn't like...well, anyone, really. Oh, and he's familiar because he's Mr. Collins. OH! Of course, he's peeved with Elizabeth because she rejected him!
2) How on earth did the EITC gain authority over both the Navy and the civilian government, to the extent that they have arrest warrants for a Commodore and the governor's family? Did these come from London-are they genuine? In which case, why does Collins-guy have them? The Governor was able to grant Will clemency in the first film, so why not again?
3) Why is Collins-guy after Will, Elizabeth and Norrington but not the Governor? Fine, N. was the aforementioned Commodore and shouldn't have given that one-day's start. Will, admittedly, was the one running round the gallows with a fancy hat and a sword. But Elizabeth only pretended to faint, and stepped over to stand by her soon-to-be fiancé. I mean, women weren't allowed anything much in the way of position or authority-so how did she suddenly gain responsibility for Jack? She only had the misfortune to be captured and kidnapped on various occasions, and they could hardly execute her for that... (Assuming the past-life Collins flashbacks aren't a reasonable explanation.) The Governor was really far more to blame than she; assisting Jack's escape didn't put him in irons, but assisting Elizabeth's did. Hmm.
4) Why was Jack to be pardoned and allowed to live as a privateer instead of being hanged? Was this on Collins-guy's own initiative, because he wanted the compass? If so, we're once again back at the question of where his authority to sign King's Pardons came from. Also, were Will and Elizabeth to be unofficially let off the hook as part of this deal? The Governor didn't seem to think so, but Will did. Was Elizabeth going to fill in the pardon for Will? If so, why hadn't she already done it? It seems as though she wasn't too convinced of either Lord Thingy's honour or Will's ability to do whatever it was he was doing, after all. Who is actually telling the truth, who's lying, and who's just confused, poor pet? (Apart from me.)
5) Having let Will go, who was going to ensure he ever came back? They were awfully trusting on his love for Elizabeth... Norrington was also wanted, but at some point (before or after the wedding?) escaped and was hanging round Tortuga, from whence he, Elizabeth and Jack were allowed to leave.
The number of quests and bargains going on in this film was phenomenal...as far as I understand it, things went something like this. Lord Beckett sends Will after Jack to get the Amazing Broken Compass in exchange for Elizabeth's freedom, and Jack's right to a letter of marque. Jack will only exchange the compass for the original of a sruffily-drawn key (no idea how they were meant to identify it using that rag...could have been any key, as far as I could see.) Anyway, he wants the key so he can open the chest-which is also what Lord Beckett is after, in a roundabout way. (Apparently the compass hasn't been working for Jack.) Elizabeth, showing admirable initiative, steals what I think was an ordinary basic tuppeny-ha'penny king's pardon (although it might have been the aforementioned L. of M.) and swaps Beckett's signature for no bullet in the head. Attagirl. Jack, meanwhile, has sent naive, unsuspecting Will off to find Davey Jones and ends up bargaining 100 souls (including Will's) in exchange for his own. After she reaches the Pearl, things begin to go down for Elizabeth: Jack somehow ends up with the papers, and persuades her that the best way to rescue Will is to find the chest (no idea how he was planning on getting the key, unless he was trusting that the Will Infiltration Plan hadn't, after all, gone completely up the Swannee) and they set off, the compass apparently working for Elizabeth-for the time being, she's pretty good at controlling her emotions, apparently. Norrington, on the other hand, seems willing to bargain just about anything in order to regain his position and honour, not realising that in the process he's losing it. Sad effects of too much rum. Once again, we have circled back to the question of how the EITC can hire&fire the Navy. It's probably easiest just to go with corruption/the writers have no idea what they're talking about so their version of history mangles our heads.
Oh, and somewhere in there, Will managed to bargain eternal service (the whole eternal/100 years dichotomy also confused me, but that's a minor issue) for the key, but lost. Or something. But when his father agreed to take the punishment, Will was somehow allowed to go free. Davey must have been having an off day, or perhaps Jack's whole he's-going-to-get-married-don't-you-remember-what-it's-like-to-be-in-love-worst-thing-you-can-do-is-let-him-go speech had more of an effect than he thought.
Confused? Don't say I didn't warn you. ;)
More questions:
Does the dog get eaten? It had better not!
What's Norrington going to do? Is he actually on Lord Thingy's side?
What's the Governor planning on doing while all this is going on? Again, how could the government be taken over like that?
Just what is the law that dictates that however many crews Jack loses, the main characters will survive?
How did Barbossa gte off the Isla de Muerte? Was he already gone when Jack & Co. collected the undead monkey? How are things going to work out with Jack and Barbossa both wanting the Pearl? What's his motivation going to be for rescuing Jack?
What I thought of the characters-more or less.
Jack-He still makes me laugh, and the machiavellian-ness of his plots still burns my brain. At the end of the first film I wondered how Will and Elizabeth were so sure that he was a good man; this film, at least to begin with, seemd to confirm his lack of conscience. Some of his actions helped redeem him, though...he did come back to the Pearl that time (just what was the compass showing?) and seemed to at least be trying to get Will out of the mess he'd succeeded in getting him into. In other words, as far as his character's concerned, it's pretty much business as usual. Elizabeth's claim that he actually wants to be good was interesting, though...are all his plottings for the purposes of self-aggrandisement, or is he trying, in a sneakily roundabout way, to be good? Did he have a clever plan to get everyone out of this one alive, or was it all directed to saving his own skin? In the first film, once you'd watched it through, you could (mostly) see that he'd been shifting things along and playing both sides off, but had wanted it to work out pretty much the way it did...this time, I have no idea what his original plan was.
I loved the way they built on lines from the first film, like "And then they made me their chief," and the incident of Elizabeth and the Rum (one of my favourite lines was Jack's "Hide the rum!") and explained the "broken" compass.
Elizabeth-was developed quite well from CotBP, I thought. It was interesting to see the rebellious streak come out, and the damsel in distress once again taking matters into her own fairly resourceful hands; escaping from the carriage-with a gun, no less-to "negotiate" with Beckett, and manipulating the sailors' superstitions to get to Tortuga. She manages quite well as a sword-fighting boy, but I generally prefer emotions, motivations and Cunning Plans (TM). Also loved the part on the island where she tried to attract the men's attention by pretending to faint-clearly it only works in a dress, or else she's just lost her touch. I was slightly worried by the whole episode with Jack, the compass and the kiss...as far as I could gather, the thing started pointing to him instead of to the chest, which vexed her-and while we reassured each other that the kiss was only part of her devious plot to trap Jack, I'm not actually so sure. The flirtation in CotBP was amusing, but it isn't in Jack's nature to remember a woman for more than five minutes, and Elizabeth's meant to be with Will, so I wasn't too keen on that part. Whatever the reason, she's abandoned the position she and Will originally held, of being morally above the rest, so I'm quite keen to see how that develops in 3.
Will-looked even better than before ;) I read some reviews that went through the whole Will-is-as-lively-and-3D-as-cardboard rigmarole, but then they said the same thing about Elizabeth...I don't agree, either way. I liked the scenes with Bootstrap Bill and was glad that Will got to be more than Jack's Prince Charming/Humble Blacksmith foil. After CotBP I was fairly sure that BB would be appearing, although I'd bet on him cutting himself off the cannon and wading to shore, but hey, we can't have everything. The interaction with his father allowed Will to do more than save Elizabeth; I liked his character development here...neglecting the amazing seafood crew wandering around, you could almost have thought it was a serious film, in those parts. Interestingly, after all the hullaballoo about Will being so like his father, they turned out to be quite different-and I don't just mean that Orlando Bloom and Stellan thingummy from King Arthur look nothing alike. Bootstrap seems to be stuck in a vicious circle, too weak to stand up for what's right until it's too late. He didn't support Jack until Jack had already been marooned, and only succeeded in getting himself thrown overboard, then he does a deal with DJ to save his own skin and doesn't defy him until the point where it only made things worse for him and Will. Both father and son seem to have a conscience, moral centre, basic sense of loyalty-whatever, but only Will seems to have the strength to act on what he knows to be right. Despite the end of CotBP, Will also retains his issues about piracy-circumstances may have forced him to befriend pirates and half-become one himself, but you still get the impression that he disapproves on principle. Maybe the fact that it was for piracy that his father abandoned them has exacerbated his dislike?
And come on, you gotta sympathise with the poor boy when, after nearly getting himself killed (again. I've lost count of how many times) to save his girlfriend, she goes off and starts kissing Jack. (Never mind, Will, there's plenty of people who'd be willing to take her place ;) ) That's part of the reason why I can't decide whether this film is more fairytale-fantasy than the first or not...the end of CotBP was the "happy ever after", while DMC is after after. There's Davey Jones and the Kraken, of course, to set against the skeletal pirates, but W&E seem to be a little more in the real world.
At Tia Dalma's at the end, does he drink to Jack with the rest?
What's the odds Will is going to end up captaining some vessel or other in the third film? He seems to be quite good at taking over the reins. Wheel. Whatever. Did it on the Interceptor in CotBP, and on the Pearl this time around.
Norrington-where is he, and what have you done with him? Actually, I could cope with him being chucked out of the Navy and even with the stubble&rum, but the way his morals are heading in the third film is not looking good. Better an honourable scruffbag than a treacherous ice-cream wig guy! I was glad to see bits of his sardonic humour still lingered, even when he had sunk to taking orders from Jack on a regular basis, as opposed to only when Jack was holding girlfriend hostage. Speaking of which, he's either got over Elizabeth, or is too drunk&miserable to care. Brain sharpened by the end of the film, though, when he was stealing the heart...but how did he get off the island? For the trouble Jack had with being marooned in the first film, people seem to get around the islands terribly easily-and quickly.
Pintel & Ragetti-have apparently decided to be back on Jack's side. Was v. pleased to see them again =) Ragetti's bit about illiterate people getting credit for trying to read the Bible upside down was...pretty funny, actually.
I liked Tia Dalma, I liked that the Kraken and the Flying Dutchman were in it, and I was so glad that the monkey is back!
Some parts I really loved-
Elizabeth's facial expressions as she attempts to manipulate the rather dim sailors; the flaming Tortuga she leaves on the deck.
Will's discovery of the quickest way to get down rigging: stick your father's trusty dagger in the sail and let go.
Jack-kebab smashing through the bridges.
The hilarious bit in the bone cages, especially with the classical music playing over their attempts to get up, the race up the cliff and the roll down the hill.
The three-way sword fight and the bit on the wheel, particularly the way every now and again everyone stops what they're doing to watch it go past =)
P&R stealing the chest while the boys are fighting and Elizabeth's in huffs & histrionics.
Some lines I also really loved-
Jack: Complications arose, ensued, were overcome.
Beckett: Jack Sparrow
Will&Elizabeth: Captain!
Tia Dalma: I require payment.
Jack Sparrow: Look.
[shoots the monkey]
Jack Sparrow: An undead monkey!
Tia Dalma: The payment is fair...
Jack: "Where's the monkey? I want to shoot something!"
Jack Sparrow: Mind the boat.
Will Turner: [to Gibbs] Mind the boat.
Gibbs: [to Ragetti] Mind the boat.
Ragetti: [to Pintel] Mind the boat.
Pintel: [to an anonymous sailor] Mind the boat.
Sunburned Sailor: [to Marty] Mind the boat.
Marty: [to Cotton's parrot] Mind the boat.
Cotton's Parrot: [to Cotton] Mind the boat.
[It flies off, leaving Cotton to pout and sit back down in the boat]
Will: "I won't leave without Jack!" *spots Jack fleeing towards them with several score of hungry cannibals behind him* "Time to go!"
Jack Sparrow: [to Norrington] What are you doing here?
Norrington: You hired me. I can't help it if your standards are lax.
Jack Sparrow: You smell funny.
Elizabeth: There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.
Jack: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.
Jack: Hello Beastie!
Jack, to Norrington: I'm still rooting for you!
*clearly that wasn't meant to be taken literally, since I've wandered on this far.