At Worlds End

I started writing a review of the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie a while back. It was to be a rather negative review with nods to entertaining parts of the movie. A mostly thumbs down review.

Then something odd happened to me. I was at IMDB researching certain details about the film for my review: actual length of the film, correct spelling of actors names, that kind of thing. Then I got sidetracked by the various links that IMDB always has for movies: Trivia mainly, but also quotes, gaffs, references to other movies in this movie.

I started learning more about the film. The more I learned about the film and why they made various plot choices, the more I liked the film. This may seem obvious and I have noticed this about other films I have liked, but that’s my point really. I usually only research into the background of movies I like. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. I don’t usually waste any more time than the viewing for a film I don’t like.

And I didn’t like At Worlds End. Not at first.

What I found out was that this film, and Dead Man’s Chest before it, really delves into pirate lore. I thought of them before as just action comedy fluff movies. Not epic movies that have had a lot of thought put into them.

But these are Epics. This trilogy deserves to sit beside such great epics as the Star Wars saga and the Lord of the Rings movies.

I knew little to nothing about pirate lore before seeing these films you see. I still don’t know lots. But now I am aware that there is a rich mythology of pirates and this trilogy is a grand homage to that mythology.

Davy Jones, Calypso, The nine pirate lords, the pieces of eight, the east India trading company, and so much more.

I don’t know how true the movie makers of this trilogy were to the original mythology or how much they made up and added to it. All I know is I have come full circle and find myself giving these big thumbs up.

There be substance to these there movies, matey! Arrr!

But maybe you need to really like pirates to appreciate it. I am starting to.

1408

It all started at work.

Co-workers coming up to me and saying "Have you seen 1408?" "No." "But its awesome. You have to see it!" "I'm not interested." "But its so good! Here I will loan you my dvd!" "I don't want to watch it!" and on and on.

Finally, I admit it, I caved. "All right, I'll watch the damn movie." "Oh it's going to be great. You'll love it." "Right. Now let me get back to work."

I don't like to give into peer pressure as a rule. And yet here I am, first post on my blog, caving to peer pressure.

But frankly, I started to get curious. What the hell was it about this movie that got them so worked up! Plus I tend to like John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. So fine, I will go home and watch this thing.

So, thats what I did.

Now before I give my review, so to speak, let me give you a little context. I don't believe in the supernatural. At all. No gods, devils, angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, gremlins, no life after death, etc, etc, etc. There is the natural world. That's it. Also, I don't really like horror movies in general.

So no, this isn't really a good choice of movie for me. But the thing of it is, my coworkers know this about me. Which made me curious as to what it is about this movie that made them think I would like it? Or maybe they just want to hear about my reaction to it. I will find out tomorrow.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

Actually, I don't think there really will be any spoilers but that seems to be what you do in reviews so I thought I would throw that in here. On the other hand, if you don't want to read a negative review about a movie you are looking forward to see, you might want to stop now and move on.

What did I think of it? Not much on any level. Oh the startling type of surprises worked on me. They always do. Having a guy jump out suddenly and start swinging will get me every time. But so what? That is startling, not scary.

The best thing I can say is that John Cusack did a great job with what he was given to do. He did a great job acting. I mean the kind of acting that makes you forget you are watching an actor. He truly is very good.

He just wasn't in a very good script. I didn't find the plot very thrilling. I found the movie predictable. Not moment to moment, but in broad strokes there were no surprises. I haven't watched horror movies for years and yet this one had every trick I can remember predictably thrown in.

But more to the point, I don't think that supernatural thrillers can work very well unless the person watching has at least a smidgen of belief in the supernatural. If you don't, it makes it like watching a movie about a math teacher that is teaching students with all his heart and soul but the math is all 2+2=5 and 6x7=8. You just don't buy it. Every time the movie starts to pull you in, the ridiculousness of the math breaks you out of it and you just sit there thinking "what the hell?"

Now I have enjoyed all sorts of fantasy movies and shows like Heroes and fantastical sci-fi. I even like playing wizards in D&D. But there is a difference. In all those others, I could except the premise of the situation and just go with it, because there were heroes and good guys to root for. Plus the writing was better. (yes, even in the D&D games, the writing was better)

In this movie, while you are obviously supposed to pull for the Cusack character, I just couldn't get into it. They put in a back story that the room could use against him to continue to show how evil this room was. But it seems like thats all it was for. Put there so the room could use it.

I thought Cusack did the character about as good as anyone could. I just couldn't relate to the character as written. An actor can only rise so far above the script.

They set up the main character this way. He never before has seen evidence for the supernatural. You know he is going to in this room, thats the point of the movie. So all that is left is waiting to see what actually happens. And because they wanted to do so much in the room, they can only build it up so much.

They did spend a fair amount of time before he enters the room. But they state boldly that no one lasts longer than an hour in there. So that leaves out any real suspense in the room. Shit has to go down and soon once he gets inside. So instead of suspense horror, it is action horror I guess. Based on this movie, action horror doesn't work for me.

I find this a challenge to write about because it would be easy to just say it is ridiculous nonsense and leave it at that. Plus, left to my own I would never have seen it to begin with. But I did want to try to make a post out of the experience. So I thought I should say more than: "1408 It's about supernatural shit. Avoid it. "