Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Pirates, Pirates Everywhere

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Mine turned out to be pirate-themed.




This is One-Eyed Jack, the Pirate Dog. He helps host the animal adoption site put on by one of the local shelters (sorry, I'm not sure of the name!) at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Jack is apparently pretty tolerant, but fortunately they only slip the full costume on him when someone wants a picture. He is genuinely one-eyed and used to wear a patch, but he put his foot down about that and refuses to wear it anymore.


I saw a couple of other pirates named Jack (human and monkey) when I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I am embarrassed to confess how much I was looking forward to this event. The movie itself left me with mixed feelings. It had a different feel from the first two light-hearted installments. This one felt heavy, and the ending was just heart-wrenching.

Most interesting to me as a writer were the reviews. I read several afterward, and although I had strong opinions and definite criticisms of the movie, none of the reviewers saw what I saw. They didn't even agree with each other. I think each one, though, called the writers talentless hacks. They didn't use those words, of course, but I think they would have liked to.

I had problems with the writing, too, and yet...I thought about that movie, especially the ending, all weekend. It had quite an effect on me. I wondered, is it really such bad writing if it has such a powerful effect?

I guess it's not just my poor little manuscript that draws wildly conflicting critiques and reviews. And I guess if those guys can write hugely popular films and still get called hacks, I shouldn't get too discouraged, either.

So, did anyone else go see Pirates? Or should I have preserved my dignity and not admitted it myself?

5 comments:

  1. I'm afraid I'm too cheap to spend $8 to see a movie. (Pathetic, I know.) I'll be curious to see it when it comes out though. And the dog is cute, one-eyed or not. 'Sounds like it was a fun weekend.

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  2. Still thinking about it all day today. Not sure why. It definately left me with a feeling of longing- for what I'm not sure.

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  3. I'm not sure I want to see it. I liked the first one, but the second one was a little too weird for me. Should I go see #3?

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  4. Saw it. Weird like #2. Hated the ending, but as I thought about it the next day, I changed my mind. I never saw it coming and that was cool.

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  5. Jack is such a cutie pie! I really enjoyed the first two movies too and am planning on seeing the third. Sounds like I'll need to lower my expectations a bit.

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