Pirates Ending

Kathi and I watched the third installment of The Pirates of the Caribbean last night. The only reason I sat through the whole thing was for closure.

The final (hopefully) movie in the series is subtitled At World's End. The subtitle should have been A Long Disconnected Bore. The feeling I got while watching the movie was that the creators were bored doing this series and just wanted it to be done. The first movie was good. You could feel the excitement of the creators wanting to do justice to one of the classic rides at Disneyland. The second movie gave the feeling of a sequel that was forced due to the success of its predecessor. And the third was made only to give finality to the second movie which ended in the middle of a story.

The movie was rated PG-13 and is not for kids. It starts out with the hanging of scores of people, including a child. They show the gallows and necks being put in the noose, the hangman pulling a lever, and then from below the show the legs and feet of the hanged jerk and twitch. This is definitely not for kids. Way to go Disney. They also show a lady being shot in the forehead at point blank range. Was that really necessary? The creators have to know that people are going to bring kids to see these. My kids are mad because we aren't letting them see it. They just don't realize the torture we are saving them from; both the violent scenes and the boring movie.

The story was full of assumptions and missing information for the viewer. You felt like there was something you were missing in the conversations between different characters that were plotting and aligning. They were in on something that you weren't and that you would eventually find out but don't. I am typically pretty good at following these types of plots, maybe it was the late night or the martini early on but I was lost.

It is rare for a movie series to do well into the third installment. There are exceptions like The Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars and The Bourne series but most peter out and die. One that is still in the works that I am hoping is among the former is The Chronicles of Narnia. The second movie comes out in 2008 and I am looking forward to it.

For now my love for Pirates will stay with the first and only the first movie in the series. The second two I will wipe from my mind and forget.