The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Strictly for action buffs

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Saturday, Jun 02, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Strictly for action buffs

Pirates of the Caribbean (English)

Cast: Johny Depp, Orlando Bloom

Director: Gore Verbinski

Got a good thing? Keep going.

That is the mantra of Gore Verbinski as he attempts to keep the good times rolling with the third instalment of the Pirates series.

Though the sequel did not leave the faithful enthralled, the latest film promises to make up.

Maybe, the relative failure was a mere aberration. Maybe, it suffered from soaring expectation levels.

Anyway, this time around, the film comes with the easy recall value and a familiar feeling about all the characters.

It is a familiar tale of intrigue, love and valour, with a dash of aggrandisement, the larger than life projection that Hollywood directors revel in.

Strangely, for its specific, and focuses storyline, "Pirates... " suffers from the usual Hollywood stereotypes: it is too impersonal; too withdrawn to keep you hooked all the way through.

Competence

Where Verbinski's film scores is its all-round competence: not brilliance. The film relies as much on the accompanists as the protagonists: cinematographer and the background music director play as much an important part as Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp, etc. Still, at the end of it all, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is a director film.

No idiosyncratic flourishes of any character, no attempt at easy exaggeration.

Just a constant narration of a story about a black pearl that loses nothing of its glimmer, little of its value with all the passage of years.

Yet, unlike the first film, this film evolves gradually, very, very slowly.

For long the film is as calm as the water in which the ships sail.

It lacks in kinetic energy, that a thrill-a-minute experience of the earlier film.

Yet, a few minutes into the film, it comes alive. Then the pace is no longer tardy, the waters no longer calm.

The film develops into an exhilarating spectacle as the actors get down to what modern-day management gurus would call multi-tasking. There is an amusing scene of couple taking turns to lock lips and swish swords! Yet, it is not the scene one takes home.

Best moment

The best moment comes early in the film: there is a wonderful spectacle of an army of crabs across a vast ocean.

As the camera recedes from close-up into the distance, one is left admiring the cinematographer's rare craft.

Watch "Pirates-3" for its rousing action, its calming soul. Its characters might all lie and cheat. But it is completely honest in its intent, and reasonably so in content.

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