AWE: A Horse of a Different Color

[dwgm]

... and then again, not. Pictures from the El Capitan, and my thoughts on AWE.



Went to see AWE twice so far. The first time was at the midnight show at the El Capitan with niece gingersnapps, daughter ladymora, son-in-law dr_mrow, friends elissali, drk_prncss, nelsonium, and the squeeful hippediva and smutcutter. Parked at the conveniently located Kodak Theater Plaza and ate five or six stories up at Koji's (mmmm... shabu shabu!!), then walked across the street to the soda fountain and gift shop next to the El Capitan where all manner of piratey gewgaws were available for purchase. As I was wearing my "Royalty" Disney shirt, I purchased a necklace made of pink and silver bling to go with my tiny pink and silver crown earrings. ladymora was wearing her SCA cavalier hat, rather similar to Will's at the end of CotBP, and elissali had a very piratey outfit of breeches, shirt, and tricorn . We noted many other pirate costumes as we went into the theater, took our seats, and watched the place fill up. Our seats were great -- first row balcony -- though knee room is a little scarce in that aisle. But I barely noticed that with everything going on pre-movie: organist playing Disney tunes, decorations enhancing the already gorgeous theater, prizes being given away (nelsonium got a great hat), and stars Reggie Lee (Tai Huang) and Martin Klebba (Marty) to introduce the show. And then the film began rolling and that was it, I was completely lost in pirateland.

I loved the whole thing.

Here we shall pause a moment and enjoy the pix gingersnapps took at the El Capitan...















































































































Now, AWE is not without flaws (though not so many as were in DMC, it seemed to me), but I had heard such varying reports that I had made up my mind to just go along for the ride and it worked for me, completely, from beginning to end. I don't know if it would work for everyone --well, obviously not, it's had LOTS of criticism from fans whose expectations weren't met, and from professional critics who probably barely remember the plots of the first two movies, and I think that familiarity is essential. The plot is complicated, and like the first two movies, really requires multiple viewings to catch everything. Also like the first two movies, there were rather essential scenes and lines left on the cutting room floor. I know this about AWE because I was sent a copy of the 165 page shooting script back in February, and this is essentially the same movie that's in that script. There have been alterations, sure, what with improvisation, slight rewordings, and the work of the editors, but it's the same script. So I went into the movie not only knowing the first two intimately, but the third as well, in essentials, so I was able to pay attention to detail and nuances of the performances, and not be distracted worrying about who was going to die and who was going to end up where at the end. Just the way I like it. (I read the ends of books, too.)

As I said, to my great surprise I loved it all -- EVEN THE "BAD" ENDING WE WERE ALL DREADING!!! I came out of the theater with this huge sense of elation, grinning from ear to ear, and it seemed that my family, friends, and the rest of the audience were with me on that.

Then I got home and started reading reviews from everyone else on LJ, and some professional critics as well. Slept (from 5 A.M. to 11:30) and then started in again, vastly interested in everyone's opinions. A lot of people loved it, but a lot of people didn't, people I respect, and I started thinking maybe it was the whole El Capitan Pirate!Party experience that made it so wonderful for me, and I wouldn't feel the same way the next time, in another theater filled with a less enthusiastic audience. So I decided to go see it again, at 10:30 this morning, at our city's #2 and usually much less crowded theater. It was MUCH less crowded -- probably less than 25 people in the place -- and we sat toward the front and had no one around us (gingersnapps kindly went with me again).

And you know what? It still worked. To my delight, AWE enthralled me from beginning to end.



So on to my thoughts, which got very long, and in which superlatives are repeated far too often.



The hangings: a pretty intense scene to start a Disney movie with, but it gives you the message that this is about more than just boy longs for and wants to rescue girl who loves pirates. It's about freedom vs. tyranny, the pirates representing freedom and the EITC under the poisonous Cutler Beckett representing tyranny. Never mind about the details, the nuances of history that this premise skewers. Just go along with it. Freedom/Pirates = Good. EITC /Beckett and Co. = Bad. The little kid is the last we see on the block (and no, it's not the same kid as at the end of the movie, look at the cast list on Yahoo), and starts the song -- Hoist the Colours -- which is picked up by the rest of the doomed souls. This, Beckett knows, is the beginning, the song that will draw all the brethren together eventually so that he can crush them with his fleet of EITC and Royal Navy ships, and with the help of Davy Jones. It's a grim tune, but it grows on you, and Zimmer uses it effectively in several instances in the movie.

Then Singapore. Loved it. Elizabeth singing, Barbossa (and I am completely won over by him, he's twice the character he was in CotBP, just fantastic work by Rush) coming to her support, E. holding a knife to Tai Huang's throat and looking coolly murderous, the steamy, horrid decadence of the bathhouse, Elizabeth armed to the teeth and having to strip to that short robe because of it --Pirate!. Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti, and Marty getting in under the bathhouse like this is some 18th century spy flick, Ragetti peeking up at Elizabeth from underneath, Pintel wanting some too and getting a gnarly Chinese guy instead. I liked Sao Feng except a) he was very hard to understand and b) didn't like the attempted rape of Elizabeth later on, but otherwise, yeah, how can you not like Chow Yun-Fat. The ladies who accompanied him were stunning -- I liked their giggle at Jack's name, and am wondering what's behind that and Sao's remark about Jack offering him great insult, there has to be a great fic there. The swords coming up through the floor; Gibbs firing those pistols (very hawt ); Marty getting blown back by the recoil of that small cannon; the monkey (the little hat!!!!!!) and the parrot working together to blow things up. The set, the music. It was all great.

Then Norrington, getting his sword back and looking like he's having very mixed emotions. Our dear friend firesignwriter, one of the first and arguably the best of the Sparrington writers, pointed out that The character that Norrington was established to be (by canon and especially by fanon) wasn't one who could get away with selfishness. It was always the tragic, unfair thing about him: that he, having such firm conceptions about Right and Duty and Service, almost couldn't be allowed to act solely for his own interests. He did it once [when he gave Beckett the heart of Davy Jones], and everything that was built upon that act -- reinstatement, promotion, his "old life" resumed with the illusion of once-real honor -- had to fall, because its foundation was made of something abhorrent to him. Poor James. Certainly, it can go other ways for him in fanfiction (I so adore penknife's take on him in Proper Pirates) but in the movie it worked the way it was meant to. I rather cringed when Elizabeth was so abrupt and accusing with him, but she saw that he meant to make it up, and I think James' death added to her score against Beckett. She was very much distressed by James' death -- there's another good fic waiting to be written.

A side note: as one reviewer on LJ said, what's with E.'s Kiss of Death, anyway? Jack, Sao Feng, Norrington, and Will: kiss Elizabeth and kiss your ass goodbye. That would be a good question for TnT: was that the plan? Although Norrington's kiss wasn't in the script, so maybe not? Maybe that's why she's the perfect mate for Will? That's a horrid thought, but it just really hit me when I saw the movie.

Davy Jones, playing his organ, heartbroken AND under Beckett's thumb. Davy is a bad guy, but I really felt for him in AWE, particularly in that first scene, and especially when he visits Tia Dalma in the Pearl's brig later -- one of the most effecting scenes in the movie. Bill Nighy and Naomie Harris were both outstanding, and Nighy's CGI makeup was even more amazing in AWE than in DMC -- it's great when he gets agitated and his tentacles writhe accordingly. And here's what virgo_79 said about Davy vs. Mercer later in the flick: High on the list of Jaw-Droppers That Had Me Squeeing In Delight is the fabulously brutal and horrifying end of our dear Mr. Mercer. Let me clean my glasses and take a second look, children, because that guy just got skull fucked to death in a Disney movie. I wanted that character to die horribly, and Santa brought Virgo that present. Holy hell on a Harley, I still can't believe I saw that. That was the best facial-related violence since Beatrix plucked out Elle's eye in Kill Bill. Enough said. ;)

The journey to World's End was (as has been noted in various professional reviews) Gilliamesque. Poor monkey, shivering, and Tia Dalma emphasizing that Jack is in a place not of death but of punishment -- a prelude to what's coming. The breaking off of the toe was designed to appeal to all the ten year old boys (of all ages) in the audience. The arctic sets were amazingly impressive, and then the starry one, the sea like glass and then the waterfall and all the callbacks from the ride, from Barbossa and otherwise. Loved all that. Great stuff.

Then The Nose: so shapely, and so close you can count every pore, LOL! And so appropriate an intro to Captain Jack in Hell. Here's where the multiple Jacks start appearing, the good Captain's personality split into a hundred shards. Depp must have had huge fun doing this, and that scene alone is worth seeing the movie more than once. There are many reviewers who didn't like the way this device was repeated throughout the movie, but I personally loved it. I thought it did what it needed to do, emphasizing the increased madness brought on by his stint in the Locker, and the strength of his internal debate. And for this opener, one can hardly argue with the attraction of a shirtless and exotically tattooed Jack. ;) Soon most of the Jacks fade away and we see what his Hell is really like: him and the Pearl on the Great Salt Lake. No wind, no water, no one else. Feasting on half a peanut (if apples are featured in the other films, it's peanuts in this one, at least three times (and Barbossa talking baby talk to the monkey was hilarious!)). Trying to haul the Pearl along and failing miserably. But then it's Tia Dalma's crabs to the rescue (really liked them scurrying under her skirt). That's a worthy entrance for Jack, riding atop the Pearl's yards as she "sails" over the sand and into the water. Jack thinks he's hallucinating, until Elizabeth finally convinces him otherwise, and then he's none too pleased to see them, or so he says. Elizabeth's betrayal is revealed to the others in this scene and it's obvious Jack's not going to forgive her easily. He's a changed man, in some ways; submissive Jack was run through back there, and good Jack has been shoved firmly aside.

But when they're on their way back and come across Governor Swann in a little boat headed toward the afterlife, Jack's sympathy is evident when he tells Elizabeth (in so many words) that her father is dead. When she fails to rescue her father and tries to leave the ship to go after him, Will and some other's go to stop her, but Jack stands there, quite still, which is as it should be. He's been deeply hurt by her betrayal, has been through Hell, quite literally, and back. She's Will's girl, not Jack's, and that fact, combined with his feelings about being left for Kraken-bait, make it quite understandable that there would be little interaction between them for a lot of the movie. Yet the signs are there.

There are quite a few J/E lines that got cut from the script, and maybe we'll see some of that in deleted scenes on the DVD. But I think the movie did a good job showing Jack's mixed feelings toward Elizabeth, too serious now for banter and flirtation. He's angry, and yet he reluctantly respects her and cares for her, too. By the end, when he rescues her from the Dutchman and the sight of her beloved's heart being cut out, he's easier with it. But she's Will's, and though he's sad at their parting at the end, that's how it must be, for that time at least. Elizabeth is still Captain of the Empress, she's still the Pirate King, and she's the consort of the new Captain of the Dutchman. She'll be all right, and it's time for him to bow out. And besides, there's still immortality to pursue.

That's a lot of his motivation in AWE. He never wants to end up in the locker again, so CotFD sounds pretty good. That's fine with Will, who wants to save his father AND have Elizabeth to wife, so their plans coincide. By the time the parlay comes, Elizabeth has set aside her doubts, realizes Jack wants to be sent over to the Dutchman, into the hands of his enemies, and that all these betrayals and double-crosses are leading to the same desireable end. It's a fascinating story, and TnT are to be commended for tying up most of the loose ends, even if a few got left on the cutting room floor. I want the DVD and LOTS of deleted scenes, NOW!! (But I guess we'll have to wait until December 4th. My calendar is marked).

Other great stuff: The Brethren Court, and Keith Richards. ADORED ALL OF IT!! The multinational court, Richards' weighty presence (the cheers at the El Capitan! Everybody loved Keef, and remember how scared we were that it would come out badly. We were sooo wrong!) -- and Jack's startled reaction to same, and obvious respect for his father. The pirate clerks carrying The Code; Ragetti's eye being one of the nine pieces of eight. The dog with the keys -- "Sea turtles, mate." Keef's guitar playing. It's all too too perfect. And Jack supporting Elizabeth. They exchange a Look there. There's that scene from the trailer that they left out of the movie: "Will you never forgive me?" and Jack replied, "No!" -- a double negative, as I've pointed out before. He will, though maybe not completely, or right away, but he respects her.

The final battle is spectacular as advertised, and so well-edited, I thought. Very very well done. The hoisting of the colors was stirring both times I saw it -- great scene! LOVE Jack's battle with Jones. LOVE the wedding in the midst of the battle, and then Will, seeing Jack in trouble, going straight over to help. LOVE Murtogg and Mullroy -- so funny! Loved the chest landing on that crab-headed guy (Palifico?). Barbossa was magnificent throughout. Love all the swinging from ship to ship on the ropes. It was crazy and fast moving and fascinating to watch.

And then there was Will, and his touch of destiny. It was still a shock seeing Jones skewer him with the beautiful sword he'd wrought so long ago for Norrington, even though I knew it was coming. So sad and tragic. Will grew so much over the course of these movies, and I really love the character. But once more Jack must reluctantly but unquestionably be the good man, because that's who Jack is when it comes down to brass tacks.

Will and Elizabeth on the beach (so that was a love scene they were filming on Molokai!) was sweet and hot. And their goodbye could not have been more affecting. Beautifully done.

TnT have said on Wordplayer that it was supposed to be made clear that the curse would be broken if Elizabeth was waiting after ten years, but that's not in the movie at all -- in fact it's emphasized in the movie that the CotFD is forever, with a day on land every ten years if someone true is waiting. So it depends on what you think is canon. But it's not in the script I have either. But one can do most anything in fanfiction, of course.

I've probably left out a lot of stuff, but I can always post more thoughts later. But one more thing: Jack's end. I have NO doubt he'll get the Pearl back, and that the crew will be happy to see him, but meanwhile I think Barbossa will take good care of it while Jack continues his quest for immortality.

Comments

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Did you spot TnT in the audience? I was one of the last people in the theater (due to an unfortunate incident with a friend running late with the tickets) and they were hanging out in the lobby. They seemed a bit supprized to be recognized.

S**T!!! You're kidding!!! I went into the theater about half an hour before the film started, so no, I didn't see them. BAH! I would have loved to talk to them, too. We saw Terry at the premier, and he was so nice -- and he and Ted have been great answering questions at Wordplay. It's a unique thing, having that kind of interaction with the writers of a movie, as far as I know, anyway.

Now - if I could just shake this feeling of disapointment :)

I truly sympathize, and I know lots of fans feel that way, whether it's the lack of obvious J/E resolution or Norrington's death, or whatever. But I don't think it was possible to please everyone. I felt they did a great job winding things up in a way that was true to the character arcs. But like fabu said in her review, it would have been better spread over three movies. There's a LOT there, and we only get the bare bones of it, really, even at 3 hours. But that's what fanfiction is for. :)