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robert_hennah
Reviews
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
A good movie but sure isn't of Curse of the Black Pearl standard
OK, where to start. Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl is one of my all time favourite movies, it was a great family adventure picture that could keep all ages entertained. Johnny Depp kept the film lighthearted, Keira Knightley brought a little something for the guys, Orlando Bloom was the "heart throb" for the girls and superb actors such as Jonathan Pryce and Geoffrey Rush filled up the ranks. This movie was near perfect and as a result people may have expected a little too much of the sequels. Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest has been critiqued by many a fan as being drawn out through the use of tiresome kraken scenes, although generally a solid film it was a disappointment in comparison to Curse Of The Black Pearl Now, Pirates of the Caribbean, World's End. Not a lighthearted family movie. Sure, Captain Jack is in it bringing his quirky comedy but even this does little to lift the spirits of a movie that appears to be declining rapidly into depressing squalor. The action scenes are great, the special effects are nothing short of astounding, watch Barbosa's pirate ship sailing the sea at night, absolutely beautiful. The performances given by the cast is commendable but...the storyline, cringe. Whilst not a complicated plot in itself, in fact in retrospect it is a very simple plot line, however, in the film this plot line becomes weighed down by poor explanation. So little time is given to fully explaining essential plot points that the film, although long, feels rushed along at a the speed of a freight train leaping from one scenario to another and back again. Davey Jones loses all credibility as the villain of the piece, a title that Verbinski seemed adamant about passing on to Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) but, whilst an obviously scheming character, Beckett is never really perceived as a villainous threat. What's more is that the Kraken is disposed of outside the realms of the film reel, thus making light out of the primary threat from Dead Man's Chest, one can't help but think that, although the Kraken scenes became tiresome in Dead Man's Chest, there should have been an overcoming the odds situation in which the Pirates destroyed this thing...afraid not. Instead we're treated to a washed up corpse of the Kraken on a beach having been told that **Spoiler** Jones was told to destroy the Kraken by Lord Beckett **End Spoiler** Geoffrey Rush gives another truly epic performance as Captain Barbosa, as did Johnny Depp with Captain Jack Sparrow, it's unfortunate that the film could not obtain the epic recognition that it's actors have claimed for themselves. An entertaining film with some laughs and some tears (if you're that way inclined), some astounding special effects and marvellously inventive action sequences, however, a disappointment in comparison with Pirates, Curse of the Black Pearl. An overcomplicated story with more twists than a pig's tail wasn't needed in this fantasy world, this film alienates the audience it was once aimed at, primarily children and family. The quick witted banter is toned down and a depressing mood is invested in most scenes, gone are the beautiful sandy beaches, gone is the sunshine, instead rain and whirlpools are the flavour of the day. The main theme music used in the previous instalments for the action scenes has also been replaced, in what I personally believe was a foolish move. If you're a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean then nothing I say will stop you seeing this movie, it has to be done, just... don't go in with high expectations, whilst this film doesn't seem as long as Dead Man's Chest it also fails to invest the charm of its predecessors into it's reels.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Soooo disappointed
Well, where do I start, I guess I'll outline some of the good and the bad. The special effects team did a great job especially with the final action sequence although I thought some of the venom sequences were a little poor, such as when venom was talking the mouth movements looked quite bad and Eddie Brock's teeth changing to fangs permanently looked pretty stupid. Kirsten Dunst looked great, I thought she looked awful in Spiderman 2. Great to see the return of certain characters such as J Jameson, the Russian landlord, his daughter and the thug from number 1, not to mention Harry Osbourne who gave the best performance in the movie, he really gives a good show of conflicting emotions. The negatives are based primarily on a lot of cheesy acting. I know they were trying to show extremes between good and evil but dancing stupidly down the street? terrible child actors proclaiming "wicked, cool!",the annoying news reporter on scene for the final showdown, not to mention that Spider-man's heroic entry at the final battle shows the American flag flying behind him, disgusted flashback to Super-man (1978) anyone? The film never really explores Sandman's story properly, we learn his daughter is dying but not why, we learn Flint was trying to get money to pay for treatment but not what kind of treatment. He says he's not a bad guy but a guy who had bad luck, we know Flint killed Uncle Ben and his "justifying story" really has no justification and we're supposed to have sympathy for this guy? Besides all this information we know from the previews and trailers, no more information is given in the movie which is kinda annoying. The origin of Venom isn't explored properly, Harry Osbourne isn't really given enough screen time to give his character justice, consider that they've been teasing it for two movies and he gets half a dozen short scenes to wrap it all up!, all in all, having three opponents for spidey is all well and good if you can explore them properly, this is never really done but they did make for some great action sequences. I would also say it's a very soppy movie in that it features A lot of singing, dancing and extravagant dresses, it was mostly a chick flick with undertones of comic action. All in all, a chick flick crossed with an action movie. If you're a fan of the comics then this won't satisfy you as it doesn't explore the characters properly, although it is cool to see such infamous villains brought to life. If you're an action movie fan the action scenes are great but you will probably get bored by the chick flick scenes and vice versa, chick flick fans might get bored of the action scenes, but these tend to be over reasonably fast. I loved Spider-man and I liked Spider-man 2 a lot but I was so disappointed by Spider-man 3 that I have had to write my views immediately. Franco rocked as Harry and Simmons was great as Jonah, apart from that I cringed in my seat as opposed to sitting on the edge with excitement, wait for the rental, cheaper and you can pause it occasionally to recover from the awful cheesy moments for which Sam Raimi can not be forgiven. I looked forward to this for a long time, I am very, very disappointed.