PotC3 has a really great soundtrack, far more tracks I liked than 1. I really like the melancholic, grandiose movie #3 theme in "Wit's End", the Irish fiddle sound in "Up is Down", the electric guitar rendition of the PotC3 theme in "Parlay". The sacrifice chanting was neat, and "One Day" at the end. The music really helps make the movie feel more grandiose than it actually is, since IIRC it was a long movie but overall a drag with a lot of downtime.
What's especially clever about "Curse of the Black Pearl" is that it's about pirates trying to give treasure back to its owners instead of stealing it.
"When was the last big franchise started in Hollywood?"
Maybe John Wick (which started in 2014), or A Quiet Place (which started in 2018)?
"The score by Hans Zimmer should also not be underrated. It’s big and bombastic, matching the relentless action of the movie, but also uses themes and motifs in the classic style."
Zimmer wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean theme in one night while drunk, then titled the demo track "4:56 A.M." (because that's the time he finished it) and sent it to Jerry Bruckheimer. He then had various Media Ventures people (headed by Klaus Badelt, who is officially credited as the composer) compose the rest of the score. Zimmer couldn't take any composer credit at all despite composing the main theme, because he had an exclusive contract with Edward Zwick for "The Last Samurai" that forbade him from composing for other projects until that movie released.
Interestingly, this snippet from the score for "Gladiator" sounds almost like the Pirates of the Caribbean theme:
"Unfortunately, like many other hit movies, its influence can be felt in the decay of the industry since the original Pirates trilogy was released. Jack was a lovable bumbler, but movies trying to recreate that comedy jettison the heroic Will and instead settle for an incompetent male lead. Pirates is a comedy, but the tendency now is to force comedy into every fantasy movie, even when it undercuts the characters and plot."
Another hit movie from roughly the same time period that featured a similar tonal approach was "The Mummy" (1999). It had a very similar mixture of action, adventure, supernatural peril, romance, and comedy. Of course, some of that is because both were partially inspired by the Indiana Jones movies (with Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers" movies being an additional influence on "Pirates of the Caribbean").
"The Mummy" was influential as well (and while people tend to forget this now, its sequel "The Mummy Returns" kickstarted the film career of Dwayne Johnson, who has since starred in many movies with a similar type of tone), but it didn't contribute to the type of "incompetant male lead" trend that the influence of Pirates of the Caribbean led to, as Rick O'Connell (while somewhat humorous) was competant, and the comic relief characters (Jonathan and Beni) didn't overshadow him in charisma the way Jack Sparrow did with Will Turner.
One of the strangest things about the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is that it started as a more straightforward type of Indiana Jones-style adventure, then gradually morphed into a Lord of the Rings-style epic fantasy.
It also felt strange that as the movies went on, the depiction of pirates changed from mostly bad and scary with a few exceptions like Jack Sparrow, to a noble brotherhood of freedom fighters standing up to evil imperialists. Most notably, the first movie featured Pintel shooting one of the Swanns' servants in the face with a shotgun and Barbossa and his crew in general doing all sorts of villainous things, but the sequels make Barbossa, Pintel, Ragetti, etc, increasingly less scary and more lovable.
There have been various attempts to copy the Pirates of the Caribbean formula over the years, most recently the disastrous "Jungle Cruise" (2021) (which is essentially 45% "The Mummy", 35% "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and 20% "Highlander", but very, very bad). The best one I can think of is "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010), which, while not perfect, is a fairly solid fantasy adventure movie if you can overlook Jake Gyllenhaal's bad English accent.
I actually never watched the Prince of Persia movie. I love the game it's based on, but I think I was just very, very poor in 2010 and didn't see any movies at all.
The Mummy is a good action movie that we've talked about before. I might rewatch that one next.
And yes, as the series goes on the Pirates stop being evil and start to be roguish adventurers.
"The Mummy is a good action movie that we've talked about before. I might rewatch that one next."
If you do, I highly recommend watching the 4K version. It's a massive improvement over the Blu-ray (which always had a pretty bad transfer, even for its time). It's probably the biggest visual upgrade I've ever seen from Blu-ray to 4K.
Yes, the pirate alliance fighting for "freedom" in the third movie was strange. I think it only vaguely makes sense if you try to stretch it as a small business vs megacoporation analogy. Also odd how much of the runtime of the movie is about trying to assemble a pirate fleet, only for said fleet to not do anything while the final battle is yet another 1v1 duel. Perhaps that had to do with how the two movies (being filmed at the same time) were being written on the fly.
"Perhaps that had to do with how the two movies (being filmed at the same time) were being written on the fly."
I think that's a big part of why the third movie doesn't work all that well (for me at least). They were trying to write an epic with an almost Lord of the Rings-level scale, but unlike Peter Jackson, they didn't have a well-written blueprint to work from (plus they started filming without finished scripts). As a result, much of the story is needlessly convoluted and inconsistent.
I have a soft spot for the first Pirates film, saw it twice when it came out & by some miracle. Despite the fact that it's origins stem from it being a Disneyland ride, this movie shouldn't work.
Yet it's funny how watching this movie everything falls so perfectly into place. From the cast, to the music, to the direction, the attention to detail in the costumes & weaponry & locations, Curse of the Black Pearl is one of those movies that came along at just the right time with just the right people to turn each wheel in the right direction & not a single error gets made as a result of that.
Although I REALLY wish I could say the same for the later movies, going the Lord of the Rings route & trying to craft & "epic" story out these films was a huge mistake. By doing that it completely strips whatever fun the first film had & replaces it with something that was never meant to be there, more than that taking an actor like Johnny Depp & milking the quirky & offbeat persona of Jack Sparrow & let that be his whole selling point as an actor which ruined him completely.
Ah, I need to watch this one with my kids. Lord of the Rings and Pirates came out around the same time, and Orlando Bloom was in both. So my kids found an old silly movie I made with my brothers, in which Legolas is saying that his father was a good merchant, and the ghost from Return of the King is telling him that no, his father was a pirate. I was laughing and my kids so did not get it.
PotC3 has a really great soundtrack, far more tracks I liked than 1. I really like the melancholic, grandiose movie #3 theme in "Wit's End", the Irish fiddle sound in "Up is Down", the electric guitar rendition of the PotC3 theme in "Parlay". The sacrifice chanting was neat, and "One Day" at the end. The music really helps make the movie feel more grandiose than it actually is, since IIRC it was a long movie but overall a drag with a lot of downtime.
What's especially clever about "Curse of the Black Pearl" is that it's about pirates trying to give treasure back to its owners instead of stealing it.
"When was the last big franchise started in Hollywood?"
Maybe John Wick (which started in 2014), or A Quiet Place (which started in 2018)?
"The score by Hans Zimmer should also not be underrated. It’s big and bombastic, matching the relentless action of the movie, but also uses themes and motifs in the classic style."
Zimmer wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean theme in one night while drunk, then titled the demo track "4:56 A.M." (because that's the time he finished it) and sent it to Jerry Bruckheimer. He then had various Media Ventures people (headed by Klaus Badelt, who is officially credited as the composer) compose the rest of the score. Zimmer couldn't take any composer credit at all despite composing the main theme, because he had an exclusive contract with Edward Zwick for "The Last Samurai" that forbade him from composing for other projects until that movie released.
Interestingly, this snippet from the score for "Gladiator" sounds almost like the Pirates of the Caribbean theme:
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxgiPkGQDWgQg7JZF8S7kfWcZmNoaZmjmm?si=Hbend6D5_K0EpjON
"Unfortunately, like many other hit movies, its influence can be felt in the decay of the industry since the original Pirates trilogy was released. Jack was a lovable bumbler, but movies trying to recreate that comedy jettison the heroic Will and instead settle for an incompetent male lead. Pirates is a comedy, but the tendency now is to force comedy into every fantasy movie, even when it undercuts the characters and plot."
Another hit movie from roughly the same time period that featured a similar tonal approach was "The Mummy" (1999). It had a very similar mixture of action, adventure, supernatural peril, romance, and comedy. Of course, some of that is because both were partially inspired by the Indiana Jones movies (with Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers" movies being an additional influence on "Pirates of the Caribbean").
"The Mummy" was influential as well (and while people tend to forget this now, its sequel "The Mummy Returns" kickstarted the film career of Dwayne Johnson, who has since starred in many movies with a similar type of tone), but it didn't contribute to the type of "incompetant male lead" trend that the influence of Pirates of the Caribbean led to, as Rick O'Connell (while somewhat humorous) was competant, and the comic relief characters (Jonathan and Beni) didn't overshadow him in charisma the way Jack Sparrow did with Will Turner.
One of the strangest things about the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is that it started as a more straightforward type of Indiana Jones-style adventure, then gradually morphed into a Lord of the Rings-style epic fantasy.
It also felt strange that as the movies went on, the depiction of pirates changed from mostly bad and scary with a few exceptions like Jack Sparrow, to a noble brotherhood of freedom fighters standing up to evil imperialists. Most notably, the first movie featured Pintel shooting one of the Swanns' servants in the face with a shotgun and Barbossa and his crew in general doing all sorts of villainous things, but the sequels make Barbossa, Pintel, Ragetti, etc, increasingly less scary and more lovable.
There have been various attempts to copy the Pirates of the Caribbean formula over the years, most recently the disastrous "Jungle Cruise" (2021) (which is essentially 45% "The Mummy", 35% "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and 20% "Highlander", but very, very bad). The best one I can think of is "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010), which, while not perfect, is a fairly solid fantasy adventure movie if you can overlook Jake Gyllenhaal's bad English accent.
I actually never watched the Prince of Persia movie. I love the game it's based on, but I think I was just very, very poor in 2010 and didn't see any movies at all.
The Mummy is a good action movie that we've talked about before. I might rewatch that one next.
And yes, as the series goes on the Pirates stop being evil and start to be roguish adventurers.
"The Mummy is a good action movie that we've talked about before. I might rewatch that one next."
If you do, I highly recommend watching the 4K version. It's a massive improvement over the Blu-ray (which always had a pretty bad transfer, even for its time). It's probably the biggest visual upgrade I've ever seen from Blu-ray to 4K.
Yes, the pirate alliance fighting for "freedom" in the third movie was strange. I think it only vaguely makes sense if you try to stretch it as a small business vs megacoporation analogy. Also odd how much of the runtime of the movie is about trying to assemble a pirate fleet, only for said fleet to not do anything while the final battle is yet another 1v1 duel. Perhaps that had to do with how the two movies (being filmed at the same time) were being written on the fly.
"Perhaps that had to do with how the two movies (being filmed at the same time) were being written on the fly."
I think that's a big part of why the third movie doesn't work all that well (for me at least). They were trying to write an epic with an almost Lord of the Rings-level scale, but unlike Peter Jackson, they didn't have a well-written blueprint to work from (plus they started filming without finished scripts). As a result, much of the story is needlessly convoluted and inconsistent.
I have a soft spot for the first Pirates film, saw it twice when it came out & by some miracle. Despite the fact that it's origins stem from it being a Disneyland ride, this movie shouldn't work.
Yet it's funny how watching this movie everything falls so perfectly into place. From the cast, to the music, to the direction, the attention to detail in the costumes & weaponry & locations, Curse of the Black Pearl is one of those movies that came along at just the right time with just the right people to turn each wheel in the right direction & not a single error gets made as a result of that.
Although I REALLY wish I could say the same for the later movies, going the Lord of the Rings route & trying to craft & "epic" story out these films was a huge mistake. By doing that it completely strips whatever fun the first film had & replaces it with something that was never meant to be there, more than that taking an actor like Johnny Depp & milking the quirky & offbeat persona of Jack Sparrow & let that be his whole selling point as an actor which ruined him completely.
Ah, I need to watch this one with my kids. Lord of the Rings and Pirates came out around the same time, and Orlando Bloom was in both. So my kids found an old silly movie I made with my brothers, in which Legolas is saying that his father was a good merchant, and the ghost from Return of the King is telling him that no, his father was a pirate. I was laughing and my kids so did not get it.