Monday, May 22, 2017

Sailing Over The Edge in Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End


MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD! I try my hardest to write blogs and avoid every spoiler without the blog sounding like an advertisement… Which it clearly isn’t but sometimes a small detail slips through.

Be sure to check out my previous Pirate movie discussions below before diving into this blog!

Curse of the Black Pearl:

Dead Man's Chest:

Chaos at the sea, a stolen heart, a pirate dragged to the bottom of the sea and a pirate resurrected. This is what a waits you in the finale to the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. After an apparently lackluster 2nd movie (Though if you read my previous blog you’ll see I enjoyed it just as much as the first movie.) director Gore Verbinski and writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio bring the Davy Jones’s arc and the Pirates Trilogy to a thrilling, action packed close.

Photo by Peter Mountain - © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For those who watched the 2nd movie (Which you should of done if you’re reading this blog.) Jack Sparrow and his ship the Black Pearl was dragged to the depths of Davy Jones’s Locker after coming face to face (Literally.) with Davy Jones’s Kraken after being betrayed by Elizabeth Swan in order for his crew to escape the Kraken’s wrath.

Photo by Peter Mountain - © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company in his quest to control the oceans has taken his fight against piracy to the extreme. Davy Jones as an antagonist almost takes a step back and Lord Beckett really seems to take the spotlight as this movie’s antagonist. Speaking of Davy Jones, Lord Beckett, after blackmailing the octopus sailor man, has convinced Davy Jones to do Cutler’s dirty work, destroying all pirate ships in the seas.

Photo by Peter Mountain - © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In wake of this the Nine Pirate Lords have been summoned by the Pirate King to convene at Shipwreck Cove to hold the Brethren Court. Only problem is, one of the Pirate Lords just so happens to be in Davy Jone’s Locker… Yeah Jack Sparrow surprisingly is a Pirate Lord. Elizabeth Swan, William Turner, Gibbs, the recently resurrected Captain Barbossa (Who is a Pirate Lord as well.), Tia Dalma (Who resurrected Barbossa in the first place) and the former Black Pearl crew head to Singapore to recruit the help of fellow Pirate Lord Captain Sao Feng, who just so happens to have a map that leads to Davy Jones’s Locker. After a conflict with the Singapore Pirates and Beckett’s British soldiers and map in hand Captain Barbossa and crew, after acquiring a ship head to Davy Jones’s Locker to retrieve Jack and form the Brethren Court.

Like the previous two Pirates movies this movie starts strong and possibly my favorite scene once again is the Singapore scene. The rest of the movie continues the momentum and really gets tense towards the end of the film. 

Photo by Stephen Vaughan - © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This may be the best performances out of the entire cast of this movie, unlike the previous movies where Johnny Depp seemed to have taken the spotlight actors such as Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom with Elizabeth and William’s romance and Geoffrey Rush who we get to a see a different side of Barbossa from, a more protagonist side. The protagonist spotlight seems to fall on William Turner and most of the movie revolves around him and his father Bootstrap “Bill” Turner. That’s not saying this was Johnny Depp’s best performance either, especially in the start of the film where we see Jack cope with being stuck in Davy Jones’s locker in his own, quirky way. Oh yeah I never mentioned them in the previous two blogs but Pintel (Lee Arenberg) and Ragetti (Mackenzie Cook) are probably some of my favorite characters in these movies despite their roles not being as large as Jack or Will. They add comic relief without going too off the walls and I just enjoy their characters in general. Ragetti gets to do something pretty special in this movie too. Sucks those two characters are not returning in the new movie.

Remember when I mentioned on the last Pirates blog that Paul McCartney was making a cameo appearance in Dead Men Tell No Tales? Well he isn't the first star to cameo in these movies... No Keith Richards who everyone knows as being a famous musician as well as founding member and lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones makes a cameo appearance in this specific movie as well as the following sequel. What character Keith Richards plays however is something you guys will have to watch the movie to find out, it's kind of a cool cameo and I don't want to spoil it despite the movie being ten years old. While Keith isn't appearing in Dead Men Tell No Tales it would of been cool to see Keith interact with Paul McCartney in said movie. I also discovered another fact regarding Keith and Pirates of the Caribbean is that Johnny Depp, when formulating how he would act as Jack Sparrow for the first film based his performance on a personality mixture of Keith Richards and apparently Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes... which explains Jack's womanizer side.


Once again the soundtrack compliments the movie to a key and might be Hans Zimmer’s best work aside from The Dark Knight Trilogy. “Hoist the Colours.” And it’s instrumental variant “What Shall We Die For” are my favorite songs out of the entire soundtrack. This perhaps is my favorite soundtrack from Hans Zimmer.

Finally the visual effects, there has been visual effect in the two previous movies, with Barbossa and his undead crew and Davy Jones and his crew of barnacle covered cronies but this movie really takes that to the next level. Though I have to say it does falter a bit towards the end of the movie, maybe it’s just my eyes but those wood splinters that are sent flying when Lord Beckett’s ship is destroyed aren’t very real. Some actually look like they’re flying through Lord Beckett but unless he’s a ghost, that’s impossible.


After rewatching this movie and the previous two I can safely say this might be my favorite out of the Trilogy, beating the first movie out by a slither. It’s an incredible thrill ride from start to end with a massive cast of swashbuckling pirates. With the amazing soundtrack to compliment it’s action and the almost flawless Visual Effects this is an epic conclusion to the Pirates Trilogy. Of course that wouldn’t be the end of Jack Sparrow’s adventures and he would continue, with map in hand to search for the Fountain of Youth in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger’s Tides. I’ll be discussing that movie later on this week in anticipation for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales which actually releases this Friday May 26th. While the 4th movie isn’t my all time favorite and may be my least favorite it’s worth discussing. If you haven’t seen the first Pirate’s Trilogy I highly recommend checking them out via iTunes! You can buy At World’s End from iTunes for $17.99 for an HD copy or $9.99 for an SD copy.


Of course you can’t set out on the seven seas without a pirate hat and that brings me to today’s free knitting pattern, which actually doesn’t look like a knitting pattern at all. This is the “Tricorn Hat” by Laura Thomas & Heidi Waterhouse!


Definitely doesn’t look like a knitting pattern at first glance and I almost thought I made a mistake when searching for Pirate knitting patterns but this is a knitting pattern as knitting patterns can be. The reason it looks like this is because the end result is actually felted. I’ve never felted any project on purpose before, though I have accidentally felted a few socks in the past, so I’m not really knowledgeable on the whole process. Equipment you’ll need is 1 29-inch cable US Size 13 Circular Needles, 600 yards of felt able worsted-weight wool, 10 Stitch Markers 3 medium stainless steel safety pins of some kind, she recommends quilting pins, a tapestry needle and finally a Washer machine.


At first glance this pattern looked quite difficult but it’s just built up using increases with knits and purls and some sewing. You can check out this pattern on http://www.knitlikeapirate.com/projects/tricorn.shtml and if you want to see what other knitters have done with this project be sure to check out the pattern on Raverly! As far as the felting process goes knitlikeapirate.com has a felting tutorial for three different methods. (Even a method for those who don’t want to use their washer/dryer) Apparently this hat is going to look quite big before felting so don’t panic if it looks off before you felt it. Oh yeah! You can’t have a pirate hat without a feather so maybe I can convince one of my birds, maybe Monty the Miligold Macaw to lend me a feather for when I do this hat.

Well we’re at the finishing line for today’s blog. Sorry if things seem a bit short today but I’m not going to let a little cold stop me from blogging for you guys even if it’s not as long as normal. Before I leave however I have to remind you of something else releasing on May the 26th… ZAK Knits Episode 4! Yes I’ve already begun editing it after finally filming this new episode of ZAK Knits. I’ve got quite a few ideas for future ZAK Knits and with the positive reception I’ve received on my first three episodes I’m eager to keep these Episodes rolling out. I know it’s been a few months since Episode 3 but hopefully ZAK Knits as well as my video uploads in general will become more consistent in the future. At lease I’m being consistent with this blog as I haven’t missed a day on my schedule since starting last September. Anyway be sure to visit the ZAK Entertainment youtube channel and this blog on Friday May 26th for the release of ZAK Knits Episode 4! I’d give you guys a time but I post all my stuff early in the morning at 5:00 CST so it doesn’t matter it’ll be up before you guys are up thanks to prescheduling. Truth be told I don’t actually write the blog that early in the mornings it’s always the day before then I schedule it to go up at 5:00, there’s a little behind the scenes fact of the blog. With that all said and done I be setting out to Stranger Tides to search for more pirate knitting booty.

That’s a wrap folks!

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