Long, pointless and hard to watch

I have already been howled down by my spirituality class for saying I didn’t like this film so I know that young people are already going to disagree with me. This film broke box office records but I still think it wasn’t as good as the first one and I didn’t particularly like that one either.

Visually the film is amazing, there is some humour in the film but overall I found this a very exhausting experience. The reason for this is that not much in the film makes sense. The plot is very vague. This gave me the feeling that I had no real reference point. In other words I didn’t know what was good or bad, whose side anyone was one, what they were trying to achieve and why. If this is how it feels to be a post modernist then I feel sorry for them.

Shallow characters

Captain Jack Sparrow is a selfish pirate. He gives up Will Turner to Davy Jones without batting an eyelid (this is not my problem). Later when they are being attacked by sea monster he comes back to save them (this is my problem). There is no consistency with the characters, they behave in completely contradictory ways one moment to the next. Elizabeth is also confused, she loves Will then her affections turn to Jack. The Commodore in the first film appears in the second wrecked and ruined willing to be the worst of characters, the opposite of what he was before. Will in the first film is pictured as holding to truth honour and all that, but in the end succumbs to being a pirate. In this second instalment he is all back to honour and valour again.

Our Culture

This film reflects the hopelessness and despair of our culture. Life seems to be one experience after another without there being any particular meaning. It’s a very self centred film, it’s all about each character’s life rather than being about the bigger issues that affect everyone. A lot of films represent the struggle for freedom, or love, or honour or to save the world from evil. This film represents life as one scrape after another without any reference to other people or important values.

Relationships are fluid depending on what you get out of them or what they mean to you at the time. This is sadly reflected by the drop in marriages and the rise in divorces. People are swapping partners like any other consumable. What happened to loyalty, faithfulness and commitment? Have we come to a point in our culture whereby we relate to each other only on the basis of gaining an advantage for ourselves? Each of the characters in this film seemed to operate from this frame of reference. This film reflects how people are becoming shallow, it’s disturbing because it reveals us as being fickle how so often we are just seeking our own interests and how we are prepared to use people to get what we want. 

Humour

If it wasn’t for Johnny Depp then this would have been a very bad movie. The only thing that I felt I could connect with was the slap stick humour and the crazy situations Johnny’s character found himself in.

Score

I give this 2 stars mostly because there were some funny parts and I appreciated the visual beauty of the film. Overall I found it very shallow viewing.