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Guess what I just saw.... Pirates of the Caribbean!!

What a fabulous movie. It's not perfect, of course, but it was wholly entertaining, well-made, exciting, and way funnier than I expected. Great dialogue.

First of all, this movie was All.About.Depp. Johnny Depp ruled this movie. Orlando Bloom did his part-- he was gorgeous and in-character and good with his sword-- but Johnny Depp just stole each scene, and relished in his thievery. His Jack Sparrow is a wonderful character: shallow, noble, smart, stupid, shameless, wiley, but not without a sense of fairness. He somehow manages to be both duplicitous and profoundly loyal at the same time. Above all, he's a great pirate. Slightly mad perhaps, but a great pirate. And he's really, really fun to watch. He never tired of hearing himself talk, and I never got tired of him talking. I especially loved his constant irritation when people forgot the "captain."

Orlando Bloom's character, Will, is quite different--- he has some of Jack's flair, but for the most part is the total straight man. Or at least, desperately tries to be. So it seems like he might simply disappear into the deck next to the flamboyant and lavishly loud Sparrow, but surprisingly he manages to hold his own. Johnny Depp steals the scenes, but Orlando just has to open those big fawn-brown eyes and clench his jaw and suddenly I'm in his camp again. He didn't, also surprisingly, remind me of Legolas at all. I can't think of who he reminded me of, but it wasn't Legolas. And that's a neat trick which says his acting was, if not at Depp's level, certainly decent enough that I believed his character.

I loved Sparrow's entrance scene, getting to the dock. I won't spoil it for others, but you know what I'm talking about. He stands tall, the pirate flag waves with the rising music, and then... ::chuckle::

I loved the ways the song was incorporated, especially the drunken/fire scene. That was great. Speaking of, I liked the girl here. She was very pretty, and never annoyed me once as a damsel in distress. She was entertaining too.

I found the fight scenes, especially the first in the smithery, to be beautifully choreographed. Very clever. More entertaining to me than the fights in Mask of Zorro, which until now had been my previous favorite popcorn movie of sword-fighting nature.

Thinking about it, there were several scenes they couyld have cut, and made the movie shorter. And yet, I'm glad they didn't. Because they'd have taken out all the fun of it. Some of the extraneous scenes were the really funny ones, that made you love the characters. I can't wait to see what they put on the DVD.

Watching this movie, I looked at Orlando Bloom and I thought, "Movie making gold." That smile, those pretty eyes, that earnest-sincere look, that nice set of shoulders... ladies, we have a winner and he's going to be a winner for quite a while. Lord of the Rings introduced him (and probably gave him enough money to be picky about his projects), and it's movies like this that are getting his permanent recognition. Johnny Depp already is a star, and probably did this movie for fun. And he did look like he was having it.

I adored the scenes between Jack and Elizabeth on the beach. That dancing and signing around the fire had me laughing in my chair. Sparrow's exclamation of "I love this song!" made me seriously giggle. First their argument when he reveals he was on the island only 3 days before, and then when she gets him drunk, and then their chatting near the fire, and then his morning cries of "But WHY burn the rum?" The friendly dynamic between Elizabeth and Jack wasn't something I actually expected, I thought only Will and Jack would do the bonding thing, as with movie tradition. But Jack and Elizabeth got along pretty well, and it was refreshing and amusing.

In fact, Jack Sparrow just amused the crap out of me. He reminded me of a whimsical version of the marquis de Carabas from Neil Gaimon's novel Neverwhere. And I loved his lines. I loved how he was a great pirate, and yet also kept embarassing himself.

I loved the constant trading of ships. And I loved how being a respectable sailor and beign a pirate were somewhat interchangeeable occupations, depending on how you felt at the time.

I loved the various scenes taken from the ride. Especially the dog and the prison. "And you know he's never going to move..." ::LOL::

I loved the look on Rush's character's face when Jack showed up, again, escaping from the inescapable island in only two days.

I loved how everyone kept bursting into storyteller mode. The navy sailors, the pirates, the other pirates, Jack, Will, the other other pirates. Because, you know that sailors tell stories. And in this movie, everyone does. Every act we get a brief "story time!" session. Instead of being irritating, it was actually quite clever and pirate-ish. And it was blended into the plot enough that I didn't notice it as a patern until well near the end, when we got to the story about Will's father.

Speaking of, Orlando bloom was fucking hot in this movie. Especially when his hair was down in the end battle. And I liked his feather hat. Big feather too. ;)

This movie was cute. This movie was funny. This movie was witty and clever and visually spectacular. This movie was filled with hot guys and hot girls and dead monkey bones. Go see this movie.