[Robo]

I saw Pirates last night, too. I was very impressed.

How good was it? Well, now I'm convinced that Disney might just be able to turn themselves around and be a respectable studio again. Yeah, it was that good.

Originally Posted by Ryan At first I was confused as to which British guy was which. Maybe it would have helped if I'd rented the first movie so it'd be fresh in my mind, as I had some trouble remembering what happened to Notting-something-or-other. The addition of the East India Trading Company guy threw me off for a while, since at first I thought he was the Commodore.

Me too! I heard people talking about the rest of the plot as they left the theater - some people didn't understand anything - but I thought it was comprehensible, with the exception noted above.

The ending (or non-ending) was a risky move. Jack Sparrow is Pirates of the Caribbean, and killing him off takes serious guts. Yeah, yeah, I know he's not really dead, but even his absence from most of the third film (which seems to revolve around bringing him back) would be a hugely risky move - people who go to see Pirates want to see Jack. That's why I don't think he'll be as gone as the ending suggests he will be - even if he is dead, we'll still see plenty of scenes of Jack doing his swashbuckling thing in the Underworld or whatever. I don't think Will and Elizabeth could carry the movie on their own. But the ending of the movie was nicely done. It was almost anticlimactic, in a way - the final battle with the Kraken was surprisingly short. But that's a good thing - it means that the third film will be able to top the second. Peter Jackson should take notes. Other thoughts: The kinda-sorta-love triangle between Jack, Elizabeth, and Will was nicely developed. The humor was spot-on, bringing back many of in-jokes from the previous film - Pirates 1 fans will adore this movie. All in all, Pirates 2 did a great job of expanding the world of the first film. My only ding - I'm putting this in the spoiler tag, too, because I don't want to effect anyone else's opinions before they see it - is that, while the plot is good, you can tell it's a sequel. You can tell that they didn't write "Pirates" as a trilogy from the start. It reminds me a lot of Toy Story 2 - there's nothing obviously wrong with the plot, but it just doesn't "click" like the first one. But that is, of course, to be expected - because Pirates 2 is a sequel. It's as good as even the most hardcore Pirates fan (myself) could have hoped, and I am happy to say that my fears weren't justified.

Now, bring on Pirates 3!

Oh, and one more thing: I'm putting this in spoiler tags, because I want any big Disney fan (or at least the ones that haven't seen the movie yet) to be suprised, but this movie is the first to feature the new "Walt Disney" intro. I liked it. It makes Walt Disney feel...idunno, special again. Like, you're not just seeing a movie, you're seeing a Walt Disney movie. Kinda like it was back in the day, y'know? Before "Snow Dogs" or "Brother Bear" or "Treasure Planet" or any of their manufactured schlock. But maybe that's just me.