Pirates seem to be everywhere in my life at the moment. Having just battled the ghostly remains of a ship’s slaughtered crew in Oblivion and taken away a well-earned enchanted cutlass as a reward, I am off to see (finally) the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel with several Merrill Lynchers this evening. This round’s extraneous new “Dead Man’s Chest” subtitle is as needless as the last one; it is to everyone simply “Pirates Two”. I wonder how the experience will differ given that this time I expect to thoroughly enjoy myself whereas last time I fully wanted to hate it. To be fair, I expect this to be little more than a fun romp with Johnny Depp’s fantastic Captain Jack Sparrow, but when you love a character getting to spend a little time in their company is reward enough in itself.
French director Luc Besson, creator of now classic films like Léon and The Fifth Element, has been noticably absent for some time. Well, he’s still been active in a production capacity, being behind a host of B-movie action flicks, but he hasn’t directed anything since critics ripped to shreds The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, the biopic for which he insisted upon Milla Jovovich as the lead. Although she was perfect for the psychadelic ride of The Fifth Element, here the complexity of the role seemed to defeat her, compounded by poor script that fails to develop her character sufficiently.
In the last few weeks you may have seen stark posters for Angel-A. It marks the director’s long-awaited return and from the gorgeous cinematography he certainly seems to enjoy being behind the camera once more. The revealed plot, “a man and a woman meet in Paris…”, one can only imagine is deceptively simple. However, it allows for some thoughtful musing in its dialogue and a truly beautiful view of Paris, captured in black and white, which shows his genuine love for the city. Out on the 29th, I cannot wait to see this.
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