I’m going to review all the ”Pirates” movies but I want to start with this one for two reasons. One, I just rewatched this, and two, this movie could have easily been my favorite “Pirates” movie, but it missed the mark and I’ll tell you where!
To recap, Jack Sparrow just went down with the Black Pearl courtesy of Elizabeth Swann and Davy Jones’ kraken. So, he’s dead. Commodore James Norrington has stolen Davy Jones’ heart and delivered it to Cutler Beckett (who in the previous movie was Lord Beckett) in order to restore himself to his previous glory. The crew, shipless and Jackless, go to mourn with Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris). While there, she asks the crew if they would sail to the end of the earth for Jack. Surprisingly, they all say they would, but who will lead them there? Who knows how to get there? The one and only Captain Hector Barbosa (yes, his first name is Hector)!
We have a few problems in this movie and a few I do not care about. The main problem I care nothing about is the feud between Elizabeth and Will. I can’t tell you how annoyed I was that they kept stopping my movie so they could be weird with each other. It was a storyline I could have done without because it didn’t do anything for the movie or a franchise as a whole because in the end they just ended up loving each other anyway.
The biggest gripe I have with this movie is the threat of Calypso. The twist of Tia Dalma not only being Calypso, but also being the lover of Davy Jones when he was a man was phenomenal. We get all the way to the climax of the film where they execute the plan of releasing her and she just turns into a bunch of crabs and starts a storm. THAT’S IT!! She didn’t turn into a siren or a ghost or another ship. NOTHING HAPPENED! For all of that, she could have just been a past lover of Davy Jones and left it at that because I was UPSET! Storms happen all the time out at sea. We could have just had the storm come out of nowhere. We didn’t even need Calypso. The movie gets to keep a half a point for the twist but not the release.
What I’ve always loved about this franchise is that it puts a spin on the idea that all pirates are dishonorable thieves. It was refreshing for this movie to include a code and council that governs this lawless bunch of people. In this film, we introduce the Brethren Court, which are pirate lords from all corners of the sea. We also get to meet the keeper of the code who is Jack’s dad. The scene where we meet them is funny, but once we get to sea, we don’t see the fleet of pirates until we’ve won. It kind of makes me wonder why we introduced them at all. It also felt like we were meant to sail the seas to find each of these pirate lords so we could get a glimpse of the world, but that never happened.
We also did a lot with Jack and his PTSD of being in Davy Jones’ locker, which was funny at first but then it went on too long. Everything else in the film was a hit for me. Seeing a softer side of Davy Jones, finding out that there was a pirate council, the opening scene in Singapore. All these things are what we came to know and love from this franchise, so it should have been my favorite, but it just fell short. It is still a riveting watch from beginning to end. The cannons going off, that dude with that glass eye that he always lost finally had a purpose, us rooting for piracy over the democracy of America.
When’s the last time you watched any of these movies?
