I finally saw The Pirates of the Carribean, and not only did it rock on toast, but it did so for a completely unexpected reason. Most of my friends had already seen it and recommended it, so I wasn't surprised that it was enjoyable; what surprised me was how tightly plotted it was. For years now it seems that I've been bemoaning the lost craft of plotting action-adventure movies, where the bigger the budget and the more spectacular the special effects, the less attention gets paid to any form of coherence. Yet Pirates was not only tight, with one thing following logically from the next, it was almost intricate, with characters--particularly Captain Jack Sparrow--actually visibly planning ahead. Sure, some of those plans relied on things that would only work in an adventure movie, but at least they were plans and not random actions based on the need to incorporate certain special effects, stunts, or costumes. Let's hope that with all the money this raked in it starts a trend.
