Melani Blazer

Those who know us (my family: husband, daughter and I), know we’re pretty savvy to these Pirate movies. We bought the first on DVD, likely do to the fact I end up with a go-to-bed-or-throw-up-migraine after sitting still, watching a movie in the dark. Thus, only rare visits to the theatre. But I will bear such pain for certain must see events, and of course, seeing the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean was top of that list.

My husband, bless him, suggested date night for opening night and bought tickets (thank goodness, the shows sold out!) so we saw it Thursday night.Then we had to take the daughter to see it last night.

Let me stop and tell you this: Go to the bathroom, if you stay for the little ditty at the end of credits, it’s a full three hours. Get your popcorn, soda and anything else because there’s enough going on that if you miss 5 minutes, you’ll probably get lost. If you haven’t seen 1 (Curse of the Black Pearl) and 2 (Dead Man’s Chest) in awhile, it might help to pull out those DVD’s first. You definitely can’t walk in and see 3 (At World’s End) without seeing the first two. You wouldn’t get it. At all.

So my overall thought? I got the story better the second time, but the first viewing was better because I didn’t know what was going to happen and there’s a certain level of excitement in that.

When we walked back to the car after the show, the thing we all talked about was the character arc in this show. (Yes, the husband and 15yr old have listened to me enough that we can discuss this stuff now.) There’s a lot of characters in this movie who are acting individually based on their own wants, even when it appears they’re part of a team. Just remember there is little loyalty among pirates, they are pirates after all.

I don’t want to put spoilers up, so I won’t go into more detail. A reviewer said there was more Elizabeth Swann than expected, and I agree, she seems more central to this than anyone, but I think she’s the only one whose motives are clear and unwavering, everyone else is, at some time or another, shifting loyalties (or appearing to). It takes a long time for Jack to appear (they have to go save him, remember?) but when he does, he’s all Jack. My daughter was thrilled with the screentime of Jack the monkey.

Some people in the theatre cried. I can’t tell you more, but if you find yourself going “no–no!!!” and sniffling back tears, definitely be the one to stay in the theatre for the credits to end.

Look, I made it a whole post without talking about Will Turner. I’ll just say I wasn’t disappointed with his role in this movie.

“Will you sail to the ends of the earth and bring back dashing Jack Sparrow?” (Okay, I know that can’t be right, it’s my daughter who memorizes the script!) but if you get to see it, drop me a line about your thoughts!