Monday Morning Poll: What is it About Those Damn Pirates?

It's all Depp. He's the whole reason why this franchise works. His take on Captain Jack is absolutely hilarious even when Kate tries to pull the whole movie down (that scene with her screaming at the boys on the beach... ugh).

Sure this second one wasn't as good as the first, but it was still a fun ride and it had to play double duty as the bridge between the first and next movies. Anyway, I dug it and I can attribute that to Depp.

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I think this was one of those instances where everyone who knew this movie was coming out wanted to see it opening weekend. Plus everyone in the free world has seen The Black Pearl on DVD at least once and 99% of everyone enjoyed it on some level.

Having said all that, I think the majority of the people who saw this movie showed up for the Depp.

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The reason that Dead Mans Chest tripled The Curse Of The Black Pearl is because i suppose most people are like me, they didnt think anything of "The Pearl", but when they did see it, they loved it, and got hooked. It was then that they knew that no matter what happened in "The Chest" it was going to still be like "The Pearl", and so they knew they'd love it. That is why "The Chest" had triple the amount of people that "The Pearl" did.

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I'm amazed this movie did so well with the kids, after all it is rated Ahhrrr!

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It's the movie. You know you are going to be entertained and get a good return on your X dollar of admission fee. For all the crap we had to wade through, we can use Pirates as a sort of coming back to middleground, recharge the batteries, set things on an even keel, before swimming back out into uncharted waters

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I loved it because It wasn't "R" rated and our family could go. My mom who is 86 years old, even went and said "Wow!I didn't get the whole story but it was funny and had action". As a family we are looking for movies that are not full of naked people,sex, and bad words. I am 47 years old and a mom of two boys. As a parent I just want to go out to the movies with my family. I didn't have to cover my ears or eyes once at this movie.

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I agree that it's definitely Johnny Depp. Everyone absolutely loved him in the first Pirates movie, and he's been getting a lot of positive press ever since it was released. I guess it's one of those rare cases of an actor actually earning his pay.

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It's actual about Depp and Broom that chicks are crazy over them.

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I'm sure Depp is a big part of this movie's record opening, but he's only one reason. I think that other reasons are a)everyone has the DVD (kudos, Alana) b)Disney's marketing machine c)people want to go see a summer blockbuster. But what I think puts this movie over the top of those others is that its audience is all-inclusive, while Spiderman and Star Wars have a very large, but specific comic-book/Star Wars fanbase. Everybody can relate to pirates. Add all those up and you get $155mil.

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Hate to be a stickler, but surely you meant that the movie did *well,* rather than *good.*

Standards of writing, etc. etc.

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I think Bryan Singer and Warner helped this movie a lot by botching a lot of Superman's execution. The marketing was schizophrenic, ranging from New Age Spirituality fable to Chick Flick...basically everything except a slam-bam slobberknocker action movie. Most people don't go to Superman to see a chick flick. Superman 2 had romance but also had two huge slobberknocker fights. I feel a lot of mixed word of mouth sunk Superman, which normally would have taken more of Pirates' box office. People I know who've seen Superman said he barely threw a punch, there were tons of plot holes, a lot of the imagery and symbolism was pretentious and overdone, no real fight scenes except for Superman getting beat down by regular joes...meanwhile the Pirates trailer doesn't seem to be aspiring to be high art. It's big dumb fun and action, no messiah analogies, etc. The trailers show action, action, action, with swashbuckling and fight scenes . Superman's trailer showed...moping.

So my theory is that people who wanted a fun superhero movie and were disappointed by the lackluster action in Superman went out the following week to get their action fix from Pirates. Other people who would have seen Superman in its second week may have heard mixed word of mouth and lack of action and decided to see Pirates in its first week instead.

I myself originally wanted to see Superman in theaters and Pirates on DVD, but after trailers and word of mouth I'll see Pirates in the theater and Superman on Netflix.

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What people like about these movies is exactly what the critics seemed to hate about the second one:

They LIKE the endless chases.
They LIKE the hopping from ship to ship.
They LIKE the silly plots revolving around obtaining various items (keys, goblets, jars of dirt, what have you).
They LIKE the characters rocking back and forth over the line from upstanding to sleazy. (Who's tricking who?, etc)
They LIKE seeing Jack being chased by cannibals.
They LIKE the cartoony, willy-nillyness of it all.

Jack Sparrow is a big attraction, make no mistake; but people LIKED all the characters in the first movie and want to see them all together again (I thought the audience at my Sunday matinee screening was going to have an orgasm when you know who appeared at the end).

(Oh and by the way: Has anyone realized that Jack Davenport as Commodore Norrington has a sizable fan base/sex appeal of his own? It's not all Johnny and Orlando that some people are lusting for.)

Quite frankly I was enjoying myself so much I thought this was the quickest 2 1/2 hours I've ever spent. They could have kept it up for another hour and I would have been happy. It's pure pulp, comic book stuff.

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It was a sure fire hit because the audience knew the movie was going to be the closest experience we would get in years to the Indianna Jones trilogy. Depp is over the top great and the movie combined action and comedy as well as you can. It's also one of those rare movies that appeals to all ages and demographics.

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i still haven't seen how many screens it was on... more, less, or same as Spidey?

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Good Movie,

Would have been better with more Jack Sparrow and less gooey sea creatures! Jack holds the laughs!

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It's all about Jack Sparrow, the cannibals was the funniest part. Not to say the story wasn't great in it's own right. I was very suprised to see Jack Davenport return to his charater again :), and he did such a great job of it.
The movie had me so hooked, I didn't even feel two an half hours go by. The ending was the best part I think, wow it was such a shocker.

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"..as far as I could tell, the franchise did not have a gigantic built-in fanbase foaming out the mouth in anticipation of the sequel. Johnny Depp is funny, but he's no superhero. And he's definitely no Darth Vader."

Simple answer: you were just wildly inaccurate on all points. There WAS a "gigantic built-in fanbase foaming out the mouth," and the Jack Sparrow character is MASSIVELY popular.

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In short, the movie's broad appeal was the reason it did so well. That, combined with decent expectations, led to a huge opening.

Little kids love pirates.
Bigger kids love pirates.
Adolescents love pirates.
Adults love pirates.
Seniors like pirates as much as they like anything.

Men love pirates.
Women love pirates(and Johnny Depp).
etc...

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Part of it is Depp - his performance in the first one insured that people would come back for a second and third, and while the first may be the better film, Depp's passion for playing this role definitely shines through in the second.

Another part of it, however, is that unlike other blockbusters - particularly Superman - Pirates is a sequel to a movie that arrived with relatively little fanfare and hit the audiences just right. Even with all the tie-ins associated with Pirates, it feels less forced upon the audience than other recent releases and more like a film that people have actually been looking forward to seeing on their own.

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Meh, I don't get it at all. Only saw the first one on DVD, and not feeling any great pull to watching this one.

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