Pirates of the Caribbean III *SPOILERS* Part 1

I have seen it.

Yes, second true day in theaters, and I have attended, and am now ready to critique, Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End.

It was wonderful. I suppose one of the FCN staff will growl at me for saying that (we talked a bit earlier about this), but I am hoping his two companions will restrain him from hurting me, unless they decide to turn on me too. In that case, I appeal to you, my other friends, to hide me and protect me. :P

To be able to accurately present to you the wonder of this movie, I am going to divide this into eight parts. Please note that these parts only graze the top of the movie.

1. Part 1: Storyline/Plotline, Sub-Part 1
2. Part 2: Storyline/Plotline, Sub-Part 2
3. Part 3: Storyline/Plotline, Sub-Part 3
4. Part 4: Costumes/Asthetic Elements
5. Part 5: General Critiques, including discrepencies from previous movies
6. Part 6: Actor Critques
7. Part 7: Technological (including sound) Critiques
8. Part 8: What happened before (and after) I saw the movie

So to begin: Storyline/Plotline

The movie starts out with the hanging of probably near a hundred people from Port Royale (I didn't think their population was large enough to handle this!!!), all in the form of mass hangings. These people, comprised of men and women, young and old, have all been arrested for at any time in their life either being, having contact, aiding or setting eyes on a pirate. Those who aid the East India Company are miraculously exempted from this. The way this scene is put together is quite good, despite the morbidness of it. An official is reading a list of rights that have been "temporarily" removed. After he names a right, you see the hangman pullback the lever and about eight pairs of feet fall through. Now, LDers, pay attention here. Some very important rights were removed, show that the East India Company actually undervalued democracy. Lost rights included:

• Right to Assembly
• Right to Trial by Jury of Peers
• Right of Expressed Opinion
• Etc.

The scene continues like this until a small boy walks up to the gallows, preparing to be hung. He holds a small piece of silver in his hand (a piece of eight) and, while looking at it and turning it, begins to sing. The other doomed prisoners hear the song and begin to sing with him. (The song is NOT Yo-ho, yo-ho a pirate's life for me.)

In the next scene, we meet a young caucasian woman paddling a boat and softly singing the same song. She is in Singapore, and sings softly as she paddles past both locals and soldiers from the East India Company. She docks her boat and is stopped by three locals, who tell her that it is very bad for her to be singing that song, especially since she is a woman, a caucasian, and alone. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) then suddenly appears, and says that she isn't alone. The woman, if you haven't guessed, is Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly). The three locals then escort Elizabeth and Barbossa into the Bathouse, where Sao Feng awaits them. But before they can enter, they have to give up all their weapons. Elizabeth has an interesting aray, and and interesting way of giving them out. Some of this is quite funny. However, I will leave you to your imagination, or to see the movie, on this point.

In the bathouse, it is discovered that Will (Orlando Bloom) has been caught trying to steal a certain map to Davy Jones' (Bill Nighly) locker. Barbossa and Elizabeth deny knowing Will, and Will almost gets killed. Then everyone turns on Barbossa and Elizabeth, but their good pals throw some weapons up through the cracks in the floor and the two are instantly armed. Suddenly, the East India Trading Companie's Soldiers burst in, and everybody starts fighting them, since they are the real bad guys. Will, who had his hands tied to a bar, does a wonderful job of fighting using the bar with his hands tied to it, and an even better job of fighting once someone cuts the ropes that tie his hands to it.

Everyone escapes and heads out to find Jack.

More on that, later.