Tuesday, May 31, 2011

My thoughts on the new Pirates movie.

Last Saturday I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I have to admit, it was my favorite Pirates movie besides the first one. CAPTAIN! SPOILERS HO!

Characters: I enjoyed all the characters. Blackbeard was amazing (despite not having the amazing voice he did when he played Tai Lung), and I enjoyed the sword he used to control the Queen Anne's Revenge. His voodoo sidekicks were some of the best mooks to come around for awhile in the Pirate series. They had no names, but were memorable because they weren't the noname pirate/soldier who was killed by one of the main characters.

Jack was as zany as ever, and enjoyable. He's easily the reason why the series is still going. His hijinks (such as carriage surfing) and sword fighting are diverting.

Barbossa is back, except this time he has a wooden leg (which he keeps rum in, incidentally). He's the most "piratey" among the lot, so it's a good fit that he gets the Queen Anne's Revenge and Blackbeard's sword. He's also the most devious. He leaves piracy to become a privateer, to track down Blackbeard (Blackbeard cut of Barbossa's leg, incidentally), kill him, get revenge, take his ship and go back to pirating. He's also the only one who's plan actually worked out.

Angelica was naive as heck, although a good swordfighter. It's funny to see the way Jack acts around her, as he still has "stirrings" for her. Alright, alright, he's got "feelings." I saw it coming from a mile away when the chalice switch got her (I kept track of which chalice had the mermaid tear in it, as I knew exactly what they were going to do. True to word, Jack gets them mixed up and Angelica get Blackbeard's energy, instead of him betraying her.)

The side characters were all fairly interesting. The Spaniards were rather funny, and I have no idea why. They just were. The king of England was played by the actor who played Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter, which I also found rather humorous. The missionary was fairly engaging, even if the romance subplot felt forced in. I'm also curious as to his fate. Do those who get kissed by a mermaid truly become able to breath underwater? Did she revert back to man eating?

Beyond the characters, the story was the best part. The scenery was rather bland and typical (although the lighthouse where they find the mermaids was rather eerie), especially the parts that take place in England. The combat wasn't nearly as long and horrible as the past few Pirates movies. In fact, the only time combat occurred was when it was used to further the plot (obviously there's more combat than needed to further the plot, but that's why we go in the first place).

Overall, an enjoyable movie. I'd go see it again if offered. 8.5/10

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome!

You may know me as Funden, Okolorion, or some other variant of the name. You will probably know me from Wowhead or maybe possibly from Wowpedia (although I only ever use the latter when I want to update my character descriptions/history).

I live in Mormonville, Mormon County, Utah (also known as Mormon country). I like to play WoW, forum trawl (Wowhead), write, RP and play various other nerd activities, (example: Warhammer 40,000. I have a Blood Angels army. You heard me). As you may have guessed, I really like dwarves in pretty much any setting, and I enjoy the use of parenthesis when I write non-fiction.


I made this blog mostly to get my various thoughts out without having to inundate Wowhead with huge walls of text, although I will use this for other things, such as new characters, thoughts on new movies/video games (or old ones, for that matter) or maybe current events. Actually, probably not. I'd get too much flack from people that I know.

So, with that said, welcome again! I'll have a new post up sometime soon once I get my thoughts in order.

- Funden