Having watched the first three 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films again after not having seen them in years, I think they don't get enough credit.

Obligatory IMHO stamp.

IMHO IMHO IMHO IMHO IMHO.

Now obviously the reception was mixed about 4 and 5 (I personally disliked four, and enjoyed five but not for it's quality so much as it's fun.) I have always been an avid fan of 'Curse of the Black Pearl' and it has been pretty much the only one I have continuously watched over the years. I consider it to be a perfect film (not the greatest film ever made, but a perfect film). While the second and third instalments are certainly not perfect, I think they are far more successful than they have any right to be.

Dead Man's Chest is quite successful in upping the ante, twice the swashbuckling and twice the weird quasi-mythology (which we were able to accept very easily thanks to execution), we kept our characters interesting whilst establishing new ones that remain memorable (in my opinion). Not only in Davy Jones but Tia Dalma, Bill Turner, and Beckett. The imagery in the film remains nearly impeccable. What the film did sacrifice was the simplicity of the first one, and perhaps some of the dignity. However, it cemented itself as being very unique in cinema at the time.

The third film, once again, manages the transition rather smoothly, everything is just made a bit more extreme, a bit more magical. And to my utmost surprise, even though I went into the film expecting it to be inferior and overlong, I instead discovered that I was not only invested, but that this had indeed become epic in scale right under my nose. I realised that if the script was good and funny, the visuals were terrific, I was invested in the characters, then what had I been complaining about? Obviously the film is quite complicated and full of side-plots, but I had no trouble keeping up with them, after all, this was an epic, some attention is required. IMHO, the final battle was not a disappointment, nor were the conclusions of the character arcs. I found myself genuinely moved by Bill Turner's relationship with his son, the sword-fight wedding ceremony in the rain was bitching, and the weird Davy Jones/Calypso melodrama was, if nothing else, cool mythology.

In short, I did not mind that it was complicated and long, because everything else made up for it. Nothing felt out of place, and overall, the fact that they managed to not only make an epic swashbuckling trilogy, but one that works, is surprising.

So if you are like me, and pretty much only watch the first one on occasion, give the whole trilogy a watch. You might be surprised by the entertainment you forgot about.

Submitted April 22, 2018 at 09:25PM by Thesalanian https://ift.tt/2vCq6Cc