An appalling lack of discipline

Kristy and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 the other day. It’s good fun, and much what you’d expect given the first two movies, but…

… it’s 3 hours long.

3 hours.

There didn’t seem to be any editorial discipline whatsoever. I’ve heard interviews with directors before, talking about how excruciatingly difficult it was to chop out a scene that they loved but that needed to go for the sake of the movie. Those types of directors clearly did not work on this film. It had everything – a bunch of lame jokes at the end of scenes that added nothing to the mood, plot, character development, or runtime; really extended battle scenes that went on for what seemed like an eternity (during which, incidentally, the rest of the two warring armadas waited patiently for two boats to duke it out); and a few stupid stunts – very Pirates. I’m not at all sure that there will be any DVD extras when it eventually comes out, because it didn’t seem like they chopped anything out at all.

Not that the extras would fit on the disc – they’d need all of it to put the movie on.

Now, don’t get me (too) wrong here… it was a fun movie, and worth seeing if you like that sort of thing.

It could have been 30% shorter though.