For a few weeks now I have felt alone in enjoying Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. So I began looking to see if there are more of us out there, and found one who is quite articulate on the subject of why Pirates 3 was brilliant.
Henry Jenkins of MIT has a must-read article that serves as an educated and well-thought refute to the global panning the movie has received. Jenkins takes on the critics of the movie, illuminating their need for a blockbuster to fit into traditional character-driven conventions, and calling them out for not being able to comprehend or embrace the idea of a world-driven film.
The film’s heart is not in telling a classical linear story. This film wants to explore a world and much of its complexity emerges from the fact that we have been able to accumulate and master more information about that world through the first two films.
This title of “world-building” strikes a chord, because it labels the type of story that I have always been drawn to. Starting way back as a kid, when I completely entrenched myself in the Star Wars Universe, (enough to watch the Ewok movies, and read the post-sequel Jedi Academy books), through to today where the current worlds I most enjoy are Seven Kingdoms of Song of Fire and Ice, Harry Potter’s England, the island of LOST and the Caribbean of these Pirates.
You can read Jenkins full article here, or respond in the comments and tell us what worlds are most interesting to you (real world excluded).
Oh I love Song of Ice and Fire. Talk about a world with some history, all the banners and symbols. Plus that guy is not afraid of killing major characters. I remember reading the first book without stopping and it is like 800 pages. I did not enjoy the latest book as much though. You might try A Wheel of Time as well, although it suffers from long spouts of little action.
I too came away from A Feast for Crows unsatisfied. I think at this point, the halfway point for that series, I am concerned that if we keep exploring this world, we’ll not have enough time left for satisfying resolutions of the many many storylines that already exist.
I liked Pirates 3 because it was willing to explore a world no one has any clue about- purgatory. (Glad I spell checked that one.) When/if you go there, are you alone? Or do you run into others that are in the same predicament? It seems you are alone except for stone crabs. I wonder if you can eat them….
I could talk about this all day, but I’d rather stop here. Pirates 3 was good stuff. I also did not look at my watch for the duration of the movie- a sign that it was good enough for me.
Greg, I also liked it, but I wished the whole world’s end part of it was more complex and longer. I thought it was just odd that they found him right away. I guess they did know where to go, but still. I figured it would be changing from person to person experience and they would have to do more searching. I thought it was a great movie though and not boring at all.