We decided to watch Pirates 4 for our date yesterday. It was pretty good - definitely the best since Pirates 1, though I do think Pirates 1 is still better. But we enjoyed it. It had no Will and Elizabeth drama, a comprehensible plot, and instead of that sea-goddess-whatever nonsense, it involved two very nice, manageable legends: the Fountain of Youth and mermaids. It kept the voodoo to a minimum and actually had quite a bit of Catholic imagery, which lent a nice solidity to its metaphysics. I really liked the Spanish Catholics - they added a lot and had comprehensible motives and everything. It would have been a better movie if they'd gotten the Christianity a little better; but I was happy to take what I could get.
Pirates 4 was actually channeling Indiana Jones for a while, between the searches for relics, Grail-like chalices, and (SPOILER!) the bad guy melting away for choosing... poorly.
Abby mentioned to me to keep an eye out for the missionary to see what I thought of him. I kind of liked him. He had spunk. And he was very buff, not to mention incapable of keeping his shirt on, which made me laugh. (What? A missionary who doesn't look like a string bean? You mean missionaries are people too?) He was slightly shrill, and I'm not sure why he couldn't fall in love with the mermaid and keep a solid grip on his theology, but whatever. If mermaids are human enough to love, surely they need Jesus too? Jonathan didn't like that subplot; he couldn't get over the "sociopathic vampire" part of their character. Picky, picky.
Also, the missionary's Jesus was too small to save Blackbeard, but then the missionary might have just been trying to annoy him. The Jesus I'm acquainted with is plenty big enough to save even a pirate. Gasp. John Newton was a slaver and the Apostle Paul himself was a murderer, so there's precedent. The whole point of "being saved" is that you can't do more evil things than Jesus has already paid for. Even if you crisp hapless crew members and have a scary beard and magic remote-control-sword/hat-combo like Blackbeard does. Jesus is just that awesome. But despite its theological shortcomings, I kind of liked the movie.
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Yay! You chose...wisely.
Yeah...I think mostly the missionary got ticked off and Blackbeard and so he wasn't feeling God's love anymore :-P I think he _wished_ that Blackbeard would go to hell. I was really confused about the sputtering gibberish about being lost at the end....cuz...up to that point I didn't know he was lost, or felt lost, or had any reason to feel lost. :-P But, otherwise, I agree completely--P1 is the best, P4 is next. _much_ better than 2 or 3. better written, more comprehensible.
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