Current mood:	cheerful
Entry tags:	pirates!

POTC: At World's End
Uhm, this post is actually coherent! Though it is not a review, really, all that I am able to say about the movie has been contained in the previous post and all over people's comment. BUT it is, however, clarifying information about...things that I have ferretted from the internets. Clearly there are spoilers!


ABOUT THAT CURSE THAT IS.

There are a few different quotes floating around LJ from the screenwriters or paraphrased by people read what the screenwriters said, but everyone does not know about them and also there is further information to be had so A SUMMARY of things said w/ a tiny side order of their clear implications:

- The curse of the Flying Dutchman is very specifically (and only!) that its captain must spend ten years ferrying souls who have died at sea to the afterlife in order to earn one day wherein he can walk on dry land and search for his true love. If his true love is waiting for him and has remained faithful then his curse is broken and he can live a normal human life.

- It is unclear whether (as in things have been said that conflict), if the captain's true love is not waiting for him, he is subsequently cursed for all eternity OR if he gets another chance to have the curse broken in ten years. Though things have been said to support both conclusions, a few more things have been said to support the former than the latter. It was also said that the reason that Will had the opportunity to have the curse broken was only because Elizabeth is his true love, the comparison that was drawn being that Jack would have remained captain of the Flying Dutchman forever because he doesn't have a true love (except himself).

- Davy Jones did not turn into a squid-monster because Tia Dalma/Calypso wasn't waiting for him. He turned into a squid-monster because AFTER she wasn't there he eschewed his job of ferrying souls in the underworld in favor of terrorizing the seas in the living world and warping his power as captain of the Dutchman into binding the dead and dying into his service instead of ferrying them peacefully on.

- The cutting out of the heart is completely unrelated to the curse of the Flying Dutchman. It's an entirely separate geis that Davy Jones put on the post himself. The fact that stabbing the heart dispatches him makes it seem like cutting out his heart was what made him immortal, HOWEVER, the original curse itself makes the captain of the Dutchman immortal/undead/a denizen of the underworld (which would clearly be why he was able to cut out his own heart in the first place?) so, technically, cutting out his heart made him NOT immortal anymore.

- It's never directly stated that Davy Jones' geis is broken along with the Flying Dutchman's curse, but considering it was stipulated that because of the breaking of the curse Will would be able to lead a normal human life one might assume it must be since having your heart in a box is not...normal?

- The Flying Dutchman must indeed always have a captain. The answer given to the question of who its captain is now being: someone else that we don't know who is not Will. Though at an earlier point it was indicated that Will is still the captain, just free to come and go. So from these two pieces of conflicting information it can perhaps be ascertained that he remains the captain until someone else is chosen? He is just not cursed and the next captain will have to deal with the backup of dead folks?

- Pretty much everything in the movie that would have made it clear that Will's curse was broken at the end, as was the intention, was inexplicably edited out. Most notably, a scene with Tia Dalma and Davy Jones that actually explains that the curse can be broken. The only indication really left in the movie to allow a person to figure out that Will's curse was broken was the flash of green in the final scene, which was symbolic of Will's soul returning/him being brought back to life again/returning from undeath. To date, I only know one person who saw the movie and the movie alone and understood that Will's curse was broken: my mom!

Aaaaand I think that's it on the subject of the curse! All of this information was gathered from the hours I spent obsessively reading around this screenwriting forum where the writers of PotC hang out. The place was flooded with spoilers after the premiere, so they were being bombarded with questions (and complaints!) for a few days before the movie hit wide release. The majority of my info comes from this thread, though, I did pull some from various other threads that I don't remember.

Also, if you're bored, it is entertaining in a very trainwrecky way to watch Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott argue with bitter Jack/Elizabeth shippers about whether J/E got closure (to which Terry Rossio essentially replied that they did, but only if you properly understood the nature of the characters and their relationship in the first place) and the SEXISM OMG AND CHARACTER ASSASSINATION of Elizabeth waiting for Will for ten years instead of running off to fuck Jack being freeeeee. There are also some entertainingly batshit theories to be had. Ranging from IT R JACK'S SON OMG IT LOOKS JUST LIKE HIM to IT IS JACK HIMSELF HE FOUND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH YOU SEE!! to a long exploration of FORESHADOWING in the first two movies that clearly all pointed to how Elizabeth was destined for Jack and hers and Will's love was doomed to some random person saying that Elizabeth clearly loves Will BUT IN A SIBLING WAY!

Good times, guys. That is in a way eerily reminescent of Avatar fandom?