Digital Fortress

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is one of those films that we pretend to understand very well that we don’t talk much of the plot but instead talk about our own favorite scenes  so that we might appear to be smart and that we understood the point of the whole movie.

But although I like this movie, more than last year’s Dead Man’s Chest (which I found very long, confusing, and well…long…), I think this series needs multiple viewings in order to be understood. I admit that some plot lines in AWE are too complex for me to handle since I’ve only seen POTC2 once (in DVD only). And you should consider yourself very very smart if you clearly understood every line in the film with those “pirate” accent. Well, I should assume that most of Pinoy moviegoers doesn’t understand every line spoken and so we rely on context clues or whatever is happening visually. The problem in this film is that MANY things are happening at once that I tend to ignore this plot exposition hoping to make sense of it. The confusing plot is what irk the critics. The current Tomatometer rating is 47%.

But I guess I enjoyed this movie more than Spider-Man 3 cause AWE doesn’t disappoint. It successfully tied up the loose end from the 2nd film. And just like its abbreviation, AWE is really an awesome visual experience. The production design is terrific. The sea battles are better than the one in Master and Commander although some pirate ships were merely backgrounds which do not actually participate in the whirlpool battle. Davy Jones beard tentacles looks very real as ever. Check out the ILM.com and click on Experience to see a demo on how Davy Jones was made in CGI. I also like that “up is down” thing where they flip the ship over…

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Is Spider-Man 3 worth the wait? Of course it is! I don’t really care kung gaano kami katagal pumila sa sinehan bago makapasok, what’s important is that finally, napanood ko na ang Spider-Man 3. So, first day ng showing, ang daming tao sa G4. Puro Spider-man ang palabas…ang papanoorin ko pa naman sana eh yung “Cute ng Ina Mo” (joke!).
Anyway, I immensely enjoyed the movie. One hour pa lang, marami na agad nangyari. It has loads of action sequences na parang mas marami pa kesa sa pinagsamang 1 and 2 plus the fact na there are actually 3 villains in the movie. These action sequences make this movie big…as in BIG. I read a review awhile ago citing that “those who flock to the theatres to watch Spiderman will chatter about how great the movie was. The terminology is wrong: it’s not great. It’s just big.”
Well, I certainly agree to that statement because personally, I believe that the second one is much better than this one. Yes, I do enjoy the action sequence but the overall feeling that I felt after watching Spider-Man 2 is different. The main weakness of the film is having three different villains. Mahirap isiksik sa film yung tatlo. Tama na sana yung isa or dalawa…pero tatlo? Minsan, mapapa-”Ay buhay pa pala yan…” ka sa dami nila e. Si Harry Osbourn, yung best friend nya, pampagulo lang sya sa mga new villains na sina Sandman at Venom. Bakit ko naman nasabi na pampagulo? Well hindi naman sya actually pampagulo in sense na hindi sya dapat nasa movie. We’re just continuing where we left off in the last movie. At dahil nga pampagulo sya sa introduction ni Sandman at Venom, binigyan muna si Harry Osbourn ng temporary amnesia para makalimutan nya na galit sya kay Peter Parker (parang pinoy soap opera na may usual element ng amnesia ang style). It’s the writer’s way of putting Harry away from Peter para si Venom at Sandman muna ang pakialaman natin.

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