Bit Blot Forum
Bit Blot => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Assault on May 27, 2007, 12:12:39 am
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So as the final chapter (So far) of Pirates Of The Caribbean closes the series. What do you people think?
All around, these movies are just great fun to watch. The acting is fantastic, the characters are great, the art direction is spectacular (Especially Davy Jones), the Cinematography is awesome (See the shot they did of three, before the final fight in the third chapter. Davy Jones in the bucket. Simply an amazing shot) and the world is just great. I really enjoyed this series.
Please make sure you mark spoilers if any.
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I've only seen the first two. The first one was really good, but mostly just because of Johnny Depp. In general the writeing and the acting I would say was a little sub-par, although the music definitely wasn't too bad. The second just seemed like drawn out rubbish to me. Just my opinion though. I've got no intentions of watching this third installment.
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The first one was good, but felt that the second one was a rather badly constructed movie with bad acting, poor jokes and weak plot. The first half was completely pointless and Davy Jones did not rise to its full potential.
Watched part 3 yesterday and I far enjoyed it more than second, the story was interesting (although if I'm not mistaken it has a serious case of plot holes), the visuals were amazing and the fights were really entertaining. The acting felt better and the jokes were on average better than the ones from part 2. Chow Yun-Fat's character could have been better used though.
The first one is still the better though.
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Are you the same Xocrates from IV's forums? ;)
I really didn't like the second one very much; as you say it was full of holes, had no real direction to it, and the jokes were weak. The third improved on this a bit, but was still mostly just overworked plot device after overworked plot device, and the whole thing still felt very weak. Even though it was much better than the second one, no actions seemed to have any real reason to them apart from "this is necessary to advance the plot".
Shame really. :(
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Are you the same Xocrates from IV's forums? ;)
I really didn't like the second one very much; as you say it was full of holes, had no real direction to it, and the jokes were weak. The third improved on this a bit, but was still mostly just overworked plot device after overworked plot device, and the whole thing still felt very weak. Even though it was much better than the second one, no actions seemed to have any real reason to them apart from "this is necessary to advance the plot".
Shame really. :(
Yes, he is. He even introduced himself in the "Introduce Yourself" topic. You just missed it.
As to the movie -- I haven't seen it yet. I will probably wait for the DVD, and NetFlix it. The first one was fun, but the sequel sucked donkey balls. I really don't care if the third one is any good or not -- I will not pay good money to see it in a theater.
xander
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/\ Agreed.
I liked the first two for amusing visual gags, but that was really about it. The first was, of course, better, but the second had some neat bits.
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The awesome thing is, I get to see movies for free, cos I'm a projectionist :P
That means I don't mind if I've wasted my time seeing a film, because at least I'm not wasting my money ;)
(also xander, I just noticed the avatar! ;) )
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Amazing, all three... Yay! I'm a fan, what can I say?
;)
Also I cannot see how having a sword fight on a rolling wheel can be a poor joke... It's just too... Hilarious!
... Maybe I'm just easily amused...
... Probably...
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Think I'm going to see it this afternoon with Daisy, I expect it to be a lot of fun. :)
I really loved the Jack Sparrow shish kabob from the second movie. ;D
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Also I cannot see how having a sword fight on a rolling wheel can be a poor joke... It's just too... Hilarious!
Actually, the swashbuckling in the movies is one of the things I like least. It is so poorly done. :(
I know, I am picking nits, but think of it this way: most of us are fairly technically literate. We see computers portrayed in movies, and most of us roll our eyes and laugh (i.e. "Hey! I know this! This is Unix!" from Jurassic Park). We know what computers can do, and what they look like when they are doing it. Then we see how they are portrayed in movies, and know that it is just wrong.
I fence. I have fenced since college (almost 10 years now). While modern fencing is not meant to be life-or-death, and differs greatly from actual combat, years of training can show you what is possible, and what will get you killed. Pirates of the Caribbean is way over on one end of the "it will get you killed" spectrum. It may be pretty, but it is no good in a real fight. Perhaps if the movies were better, I might be able to suspend disbelief a bit more, but the movies really aren't that good, and the bad swordplay is hard to ignore.
xander
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It may be pretty, but it is no good in a real fight.
I think that's why its a movie and not real life.
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It may be pretty, but it is no good in a real fight.
I think that's why its a movie and not real life.
Oh, of course. And the computers in movies are not real life either. It is just difficult to watch something you know being done so poorly.
xander
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Depends what the movie is about. If its about the art of sword fighting and it was horribly inaccurate, it might matter.
If its a fantasy action movie about big spectacle, then its preferable to see exciting looking sword fighting.
The Pirates series doesn't give a crap about any kind of real world rules - they betray all laws of common sense, and that's why they're fun to watch.
Just got back from the 3rd movie - it was a lot of fun! :)
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I quite enjoyed the first one, thought the second was kind of weak (augh cinematography so nasty ugh horror), and I got through about twenty minutes of the third one before walking out.
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Wow. I hope you guys never play Aquaria. ::)
"OMG!!!!! A pixel was out of aligment on the second screen so I stopped playing! 0/10!"
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Well, my brother can find a dead pixel in a big ass TV and once complained that the shadows of a game were too dark, I wouldn't put that past him ;)
Me on the other hand, am used to outdated games and casual/indie games, so anything with a good gameplay and/or a good story will appeal to me. :)
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I used to have a friend who complains about crap like that.
"That song had one note mess up I hate it."
"youre hair is too long i don't like you."
He's really a jackass.
I just got back from the third one just about an hour ago. I thought it was badass (cough) sparrow (cough).
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Did I come accross as nitpicky for disliking this horrible movie? Sorry guys!
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Well, we all have our own tastes. I just hate people that are picky. ::)
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Regrettably, my tastes don't seem to run for unevenly-paced, sloppily-plotted, unecessarily-disjointed SFX wankathons. I read a critique of parts 2 and 3 that argued that Pirates only needed to be two movies, the second being composed of about 70 minutes each of parts 2 and 3, and I agree. There's not enough story to go around, so it's padded out in the third one with loads of let's-throw-this-in-for-a-change-of-scenery leaps. It's a dreadful, bloated CGIsplosion of a movie that appears to have been built, from the ground up, around the formula of Set-Pieces + Established Franchise = Dollars For Everyone (much like the rest of this summer's big movies, I suppose). Boooooooo.
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It seems strange... I mean, you know everything in fantasy movies is made up so - - - Wouldn't all movies suck...
(If you don't like the whole "knowing it's not real" thing)
:-\
How depressing!
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That really isn't what I said at all.
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Too bad so many of you didn't like the movie. Usually movies these big are hated more because "it's easy to hate what the mainstream likes".
Even though I think most of the things coming out of Hollywood are a disgrace, filled with amateurish movie making bullshi*ers... If I enjoy a movie, I would gladly say so. Not only that, Pirates 3 was an above average movie, and I'm always nitpicky, but you hardly get to see anyone treat fantasy movies with such respect.
I enjoyed the movie a lot and like the whole series. Even though there is something missing, maybe making the storyline a bit more solid, I still find it odd that most of you didn't like it. I'd take movies like this any day over the crap Michael Bay brings to the screen. If you guys say the things you say about this movie, I wonder how much you hate so many other movies.
Everyone is entitles to an opinion, and I guess it's your loss if you didn't like it, but this movie is not "bad".
(http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1974/pirates32007prevxf3.jpg)
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That really isn't what I said at all.
I'm sorry, I probably misunderstood! : )
Too bad so many of you didn't like the movie. Usually movies these big are hated more because "it's easy to hate what the mainstream likes".
Reminds me of Alec and Harry Potter... Sorry ... Sorry!
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Haha. Hey, I really liked the 3rd Harry Potter movie. And I didn't mind the other ones.
But yeah, I do feel allergic towards reading the books for some reason... I'm not really sure why.
Hmm... I think one of the things I dislike the most from the mainstream is Halo. And that's more just cause I don't get it. Like I've tried playing it and it just seems like a very average experience to me. For some reason I loved Perfect Dark though. (?) I think I tend to like games better that have a main character with some personality.
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Hmm... I think one of the things I dislike the most from the mainstream is Halo. And that's more just cause I don't get it. Like I've tried playing it and it just seems like a very average experience to me. For some reason I loved Perfect Dark though. (?) I think I tend to like games better that have a main character with some personality.
Halo has always had this issue as well. The thing that makes Halo so great is just how solid the game is. Everything in the game runs incredibly smooth, but when people get your expectations to a peak, it can never live up to that.
What Bungie did with Halo is successfully translate what was going for years on the PC to the consoles. They managed to be the corner stone for FPS with a gamepad, and pretty much revived this rotting genre. They put many new touches, they got creative with beautiful open environments, great vehicle control, new type of health system and weapon system and surprisingly smart AI. What I personally find as Halo's strongest point is the CO-OP, it's the best CO-OP I've seen and puts Halo's experience a few levels higher.
Halo is a good game, with some great points to it which are used everywhere in today's shooters. But it's not some work of genius, just hard work.
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I'm not saying its not well made, just that I don't like it. :)
Goldeneye was probably the first console game to do an FPS well.
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I'd take movies like this any day over the crap Michael Bay brings to the screen.
Don't mention that name!
I'm buying a sniper rifle for the day after transformers comes out.
Just in case, obviously >:D
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I just have to say that I enjoyed Halo. It's fun! The story is crap and there are some boring bits, but the actual combat is fun, and the way you can screw around with the game is quite enjoyable (e.g. Warthog Jump). I love throwing grenades... in any 3d game, if you can throw grenades, I'm happy.
Then again, I think I eked like a week's worth of fun messing around with the Postal 2 demo, and probably 2 weeks out of a single-level demo of Hitman 2, so... yeah, when you're an only child you can entertain yourself quite easily. ^-^
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See, I think not liking Halo is just personal taste... I can respect that its a well made game for sure. I can respect that lots of people like it for sure. I'm not trying to knock anyone who likes it.
But personally, I really can't stand its "style". The whole game's style is just very childish. Not like immature teenage fantasy (cause immature teenage fantasy done right would be horrific and awesome), but like kindergarten kids fighting in the playground. Everything feels plastic and silly compared to the subject matter. And when the style is so off putting its really hard to get immersed. It doesn't even matter to me what the story is about, or how well the game plays if the style feels lame.
Like you know how from the original Metroid on, the Metroid series has had that creepy vibe? They really had a distinct, dark style going on there. They even managed to import that feel to 3D pretty well. Gears of War has a look and feel to it that sets it apart from a lot of games as well. But Halo just feels too "gamey" to me.
I'm sure its fun, but it also feels like its gameplay you can find in other games that have a more appealing style. So I can't say I feel the urge to play it.
But yeah. The lesson is ignore what everyone else says, and stick to what you like.
<shruuuuuuuuuugs>
(http://www.gamecritics.com/feature/preview/halo_xbox/screen01.jpg)
(http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/halo2bios/01mc.jpg)
versus
(http://www.psxextreme.com/wallpapers/psp/Metroid-Prime.jpg)
(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g319/sicknick1982/Raziel.jpg)
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I'm sure its fun, but it also feels like its gameplay you can find in other games that have a more appealing style. So I can't say I feel the urge to play it.
Well, it's not really gameplay you can find in other games... it is in the sense that you shoot things, but it's much more loose, and I like that. The playground feeling is exactly what Metroid Prime doesn't have, and it's fun. In Halo, you can run around all over the place, jump in vehicles, bounce around the landscape, toss grenades around (I love the sticky grenades), blasting aliens and friends alike... it feels great to throw a sticky grenade on a guy and watch him run screaming into his friends and blowing up. And I don't think there's any pretension to make the game very serious... it's pretty obvious just from the grunts that it was meant to be a bit silly. The colors are bright and cartoony all the way through.
Metroid's much better designed all the way around, and obviously I respect it much more, but then again, it's hard to screw around in that game. It's almost too tightly made... there's no room for you to "play." Halo is definitely a gamey game, and that's why I like it. I like gamey games, and like I said, I can amuse myself easily (as is evidenced by how much hard time I spent with Hard Time). :)
It's like having a model ship you put together versus a big bucket of legos that you can just tool around with.
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Yeah, what I'm trying to say is I like "gamey" games too, but I prefer the ones that have a better or more suitable or more consistent style/feel. I have nothing against games that have a "childish" style. I mean I love the original SNES Yoshi's Island. That game was built with a solid vision. But to me it really feels like Halo is trying to be cool, while at the same time being completely silly.
It really reminds me of seeing ads in the theater for Zelda 64 that had all this orchestrated music and made it look like some dramatic fantasy epic. Then you played the game and it had honky-tonk music, freakish transvestite fairies, an owl that wouldn't shut up.
Now with Zelda, I don't think Nintendo was trying to make it a huge serious epic. Its the marketing department that threw that idea out there. But with Halo, I get the impression (based on the way the music is written, and how they try to deliver the story) that they wanted it to feel like a big budget hollywood movie in a way. I feel like that really jives a bit with the actual gameplay, but moreso, the visual style and annoying sound effects.
But again, everyone has their own taste.
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It seems to me that all movies have the same curse of degrading as they progress. And this is no different. First one > second & third together.
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It seems to me that all movies have the same curse of degrading as they progress. And this is no different. First one > second & third together.
Can I offer a couple of possible counter examples? Star Trek II was much better, in most people's minds, than Star Trek: The Motion Picture (though I really liked first movie, most Trek fans seem to hate it). There are also several other good Star Trek movies (IV, VI, First Contact). There are several very good Bond films after the first (and, while several of the recent ones have been disappointing, the most recent one renewed my faith in the franchise). Just to mention two...
xander
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I just have to say that I enjoyed Halo. It's fun! The story is crap and there are some boring bits, but the actual combat is fun, and the way you can screw around with the game is quite enjoyable (e.g. Warthog Jump). I love throwing grenades... in any 3d game, if you can throw grenades, I'm happy.
Then again, I think I eked like a week's worth of fun messing around with the Postal 2 demo, and probably 2 weeks out of a single-level demo of Hitman 2, so... yeah, when you're an only child you can entertain yourself quite easily. ^-^
Weird, the storyline is about all I do like about Halo. I love the whole interconnected mythos that Bungie have got going; you know that every single game they've done shares some story elements?
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They all suck in a similar way? ::)
It all comes down to your personal taste.
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They all suck in a similar way? ::)
*high five*
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Weird, the storyline is about all I do like about Halo.
I would agree for Halo 1, but it really degraded after that. I think Bungie was like, "Wait, succesful shooters don't need stories!" ... or bots... ::)
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I quite enjoyed the first one, thought the second was kind of weak (augh cinematography so nasty ugh horror), and I got through about twenty minutes of the third one before walking out.
Hahahaha! You missed the best part then at 23 minutes. ;)
Anyways, I totally loved part 3, it's great, awesome, superb, no words! no words! ... D@MN ... I WANT MORE!!!!
I liked it better than part 1 and 2. Better jokes, great plot and I loved the whole style and action. Awesome!
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Weird, the storyline is about all I do like about Halo.
I would agree for Halo 1, but it really degraded after that. I think Bungie was like, "Wait, succesful shooters don't need stories!" ... or bots... ::)
The problem with Halo's story is not the story itself, it's the storytelling. Halo 2 has a really great story, it's just not presented in the right way. There is too much information bottled up in a few sentences that Cortana, Guilty spark and Truth say. So in a few seconds, you get such a leap into the story's progression, easily missing valuable information. They also don't repeat themselves throughout the game, so if you missed it, you need to guess it.
The biggest problem with this, is that they need to present key parts of the story visually, rather than vocally. It's rule number one when directing movies, which Bungie didn't learn. "Don't tell. Show.". In case of smaller information, they need to be able to repeat those details more than once or explain them slower. So the player has a better chance of understanding.
Don't forget that a game is something you play, save, and pick up later; so you might forget some details of the story the next day you continue to play. Especially in Halo's case, when the story is presented with some great cinematics but bad directing.
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It's almost too tightly made... there's no room for you to "play."
You haven't seen speedruns of it have you then. Plenty of ways of fooling around, especially if you skip the dark suit! Lot's of fun to be had there, it racks up the difficulty by about a factor of 10!
And yes, I loved the first Pirate movie, felt that the second one was okay, and I haven't seen the third one yet, but I hear it's good.
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The problem with Halo's story is not the story itself, it's the storytelling. Halo 2 has a really great story, it's just not presented in the right way. There is too much information bottled up in a few sentences that Cortana, Guilty spark and Truth say. So in a few seconds, you get such a leap into the story's progression, easily missing valuable information. They also don't repeat themselves throughout the game, so if you missed it, you need to guess it.
This is very true, I definitely remember being somewhat overwhelmed by the information and indeed had trouble putting the pieces in place. I lost track of the story about halfway through. That's a really really bad thing for a game that relies quite a lot on it's story. I mean, in my opinion that's what made part 1 that interesting. :-)
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By the way, it seems i've missed a few seconds of the movie :( .. there was something after the credits ... :'(
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By the way, it seems i've missed a few seconds of the movie :( .. there was something after the credits ... :'(
Bah, it's nothing special. I can clue you in if yer wants me to..
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Aie! Give it to me baby 8) hahaha, yeah, me likes to knorw what I quote missed unquote ..
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PM it, though. I, at least, haven't seen the movie yet.