Epically hilarious and very clever, this world premiere of an original work is highly recommended and a great escape for a couple of hours. Hope you got a chance to see it!
Favorite numbers: Judge Judy Rules (a nice doo-wop song) and Vampires Are Really, Really Hot (hilarious take on how there’s hundreds of vampire shows).
The cast did a fantastic job. Really good impersonations (favorites are Whoopi Goldberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger).
So beautiful! Why are the critics picking on it?!?! Rotten Tomatoes has it at 35% which is the lowest Pixar rating since the first Cars (74%). It’s the characters from the first Cars playing super spies! What’s not to love?!?
Amazing! Also a sad but amusing commentary is that the moment the credits started rolling, I turned to Laura and said – “OK I’m ready for the 5th one now!” I guess it’s just a mark of how fun, engaging and exciting these piratical tales are. Plus I can’t wait to see what Jack does next…
The Disney logo is super cool! Once again loving that with major films releases they do funky/cool things to the normal intro – although I think TRON:Legacy still holds the record as the coolest logo modification, this was still very pretty.
I miss Pintel and Raghetti (as well as Murtogg and Mullroy), but with a cadre of new characters to enjoy, you don’t miss them that much.
Laura would like to know for certain what happens to Phillip and Serena at the end and I admit I am curious as well.
Ian McShane is INCREDIBLE as Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (on a side note, I love that everybody calls Blackbeard by his real name…something of a pirates trivia factoid for people to learn as they watch the movie?).
Penélope Cruz is amazingly fun as Jack’s erstwhile love interest.
They’ve got a skeleton captain in a bed!!! Just like in the ride!!! And it’s not forced in or anything!!! It fits the story!!! Yay!
Obviously be sure to stay to the end of the credits. If you didn’t…go see it again! If you forgot to a 2nd time, shame on you. And here’s a spoiler.
Penélope Cruz has been marooned on her little island. She has removed her black vest and is sitting lonely on the beach. The tide washes in and she gazes intently at something on the beach...something that looks a lot like her father's voodoo doll of Jack Sparrow...
I’m really happy that Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio are executive producers as well as the authors of the screenplay – their master strokes on the previous films would have made this a shallow venture without them, but it’s almost like they enjoy these stories too much to give them up!
What’s this? There’s a novel/suggestion behind the bulk of the story? (stares at Wikipedia) Most intriguing! I am very much interested in procuring this “On Stranger Tides” novel by Tim Powers from my local library now….
Both Laura and I were pleased as punch to see that Directed By was one of the few things to change at the beginning of the credits. By this I mean we were happy to spot the same screenplay authors, the same costume designer, the same director of cinematography and the 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator. Really helps the film feel like the others to keep all the same people in place.
Yay for Dame Judi Dench’s cameo!!!
The music was very enjoyable – plenty of rearranged older themes, but some delightful additions (especially cool that Gabriella y Rodrigo are the featured guitarists – they do an awesome cover of Oogie Boogie’s Song from The Nightmare Before Christmas, check it out here!).
I love that Barbossa’s right hand men are Groves and Gillette from the previous films – Gillette is embarrassed by Sparrow and run over by the Endeavour in Curse of the Black Pearl and Groves has two excellent lines – “That’s got to be the best pirate I’ve ever seen” (Curse of the Black Pearl) & “Do you think he plans it all out or makes it up as he goes along?” (At World’s End).
Spoiler thingy about the plot because it’s interesting to me (highlight to see):
I was fascinated that when the Spanish marched into the Fountain of Youth, they declared that the only way to eternal life was through faith and that this pagan temple needed to be destroyed. Is this what the kingdom of Spain was like? Is this what the Inquisition was all about? Something inside of me wants to applaud their zealotry except I'm sure it will go too far...
Well none of my predictions came true with this film, but they were mere trifles in the broad scope of things. I predicted that Elizabeth would plead her belly to delay any punishment due to her piratical activities(as Anne Bonny and Mary Read did), I predicted that Barbossa would at some point captain the Wicked Wench (as he does at Disneyland) and I predicted Jack Sparrow would dispatch someone after telling them to “Give my regards to Will Turner!”. But like I said, these are just funny one-liners stemming from the results of the first three films and would have been additional geek outs in an already amazing (and geek out prone) movie.
The more I watch all the movies, the more I want some prequels including but not limited to: how does Jack coerce Davy Jones to raise the Black Pearl from the depths? Why does Barbossa (a pirate lord in his own right) subjugate himself to Jack Sparrow (another pirate lord)…is it just for the treasure on Isla De La Muerta? Jack and Hector have been through a lot and it would be fun to see some of those stories instead of just hearing them. I would also like a little more information on what the rest of Mrs. Elizabeth Turner’s life is like…does she inherit her father’s estate? How does that whole thing at the end of “At World’s End” play out for the Caribbean? You can’t just commandeer an armada there and then give up…can you? Eh whatever…I just like to rant and rave sometimes. Probably just because we did a mini-movie marathon before seeing this one and they’re all bouncing around in my head…
All in all a fantastic sequel worthy of it’s predecessor’s and I hope this franchise lives on! I’m also really hoping for comic books, but I’ll take whatever Disney will give me. 
This film is absolutely phenomenal! We first became aware of this film as a series of posters in the theatre lobby when Laura and I went to see Green Hornet, and it looked like fun (sexy girls with advanced weaponry in fantasy/sci-fi environments). Then we watched the trailer and I was completely blown away and couldn’t wait to see it. Actually I desperately wanted to know more about it, but luckily my wife was able to curb my need for spoilers. And of course seeing that it was a Zack Snyder production automatically made it a definitely-worth-seeing flick (based on my appreciation for his handling of 300 and Watchmen – I can’t WAIT to see what he and Christopher Nolan cook up for Superman). Apparently this is based on an original story by Zack Snyder, which makes this all the more interesting – we’ve seen how he handles other comic book material, now let’s see how he handles his own material.
I absolutely LOVE the character names.
It was also interesting trying to figure out the time period of the movie – if I had to guess I would say mid to late 50s. The costume design was absolutely gorgeous.
The cast is phenomenal. Carla Gugino (Dr. Vera Gorski) is a nice little holdover from Watchmen. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen Rocket (Jena Malone) before, but then IMDB just flooded details back to me and I was like – oh yeah! Vanessa Hudgens (Blondie)?!?! When did she grow up to adult movie roles? Just kidding. Yay for Scott Glenn as the Wise Man! Oscar Isaac is absolutely phenomenal as the chief antagonist, Blue Jones. And he sings too! Jon Hamm “guest stars” as the mysterious High Roller.
The music was awesome. I only recognized one of the songs (well technically two because Queen’s “We Will Rock You” is snippited) from the first fantasy sequence and only because Blue Man Group performs it (“White Rabbit”).
I need to go and see the movie one more time. Not just for the amazing action sequences, but for the opening and closing monologues – they are very heavily layered with the purpose of the film, why it was created, what it represents, etc.
Here is a lovely article/interview with Zack Snyder talking about the film which just makes me laugh out loud.
I have an idea about a part of what the fantasy sequences represent. It is strictly opinion. It revolves around the aircraft used in the three major fantasy sequences representing the global conflicts that America has been involved with: we started with World War I (or The Great War) flying ace biplanes; then we moved on to World War II bombers; then we ended with choppers (symbolizing a mish-mosh of jungle and desert missions a la Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars).
Be sure to stay all the way through the credits to enjoy the full out musical number which I hope is in it’s unedited form on the home release (it’s so PURDY!!!!).
This book was an amazingly and engrossingly phenomenal read. Picked up at random from the Westminster Public Library in a pile of books claiming to be related to U.S. Presidents, the decadently detailed book jacket and description demanded that I take the book home and enjoy it thoroughly, which I promptly did.
Charles Carter is a prominent magician at the height of Warren Harding’s presidency in the late 1920s. When President Harding is found dead in his hotel room mere hours after participating in Carter’s breathtaking final act, the Secret Service immediately try to track the magician down for questioning – which is much easier said than done. After thoroughly gripping us with this overture, author Glen David Gold* launches us down the serpentine path that led a young Charles Carter to where he is today while weaving a mysterious plot of intrigue and assassination rich with characters both fictional and real that we come to care about deeply. His revelations about how some magic illusions work are amazingly in-depth while honoring the magician’s code of never revealing too much.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in magic, the 1920s or adventure/romance. An excellent read.
*I was surprised/pleased to find out that the author attended UCI (ZOT!).
Such a delightful treat to see the film on the big screen!
Laura won tickets in a contest from ArcLight’s Facebook page!
There was a really incredible display of old Disney movie posters in the lobby.
You don’t need to see the first one in order for this film to make any kind of sense! Laura had seen the first one so she got the solitary reference, but it’s not truly necessary for any major portion of this film.
Emma Thompson is incredibly talented (produces, writes and stars in both films). The film also has a really amazing ensemble cast including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Smith, Rhys Ifans, Bill Bailey and Ralph Fiennes! And the kids aren’t bad either! Well I mean, they are “bad” but they’re not bad actors. You know what I mean.
Recently noticed an article/cover story from some magazine talking about Maggie and Emma being best friends so I think it’s really cute/quaint that they’re in this movie together.
Look at that fluffy unicorn! He’s so fluffy I’m gonna die! It’s so fluffy!!!
Absolutely delightful film. Great heart, great story, really enjoyable experience.
The 3-D was a little much for me…about half the time I couldn’t stop thinking about recent articles about 3-D TV’s and how 3-D is a cheap approximation of what our eye’s already do.
The other half of the time I kind of felt like I was watching the trailers…they kind of put a lot of the movie in the trailers and I got a little bored of it at some point. There were better original gags, so it wasn’t best-stuff-is-in-the-trailer syndrome, but there were just parts that kind of dragged because I’d already seen the trailers like twice.
Absolutely brilliant!