Please note, the mixing of Pirates and Scientists does not a good film make

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100 movies of 2013

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

Pirate Captain sets out on a mission to defeat his rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz for the Pirate of the year Award. The quest takes Captain and his crew from the shores of Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London.

Wow. What a freaking big disappointment. It’s rare I start anything here so negatively. But I’m not sure why I was quite so disappointed. Not epically disappointed. But near enough.

See, those clever Aardman Animations guys did amazing work with Wallace and Gromit. None of them hit a dud note. Charming. Cute. Funny. Touching. Stop motion at its best. Near enough.

The Pirates! dropped the ball. For me. It looked like a lot of fun. Anything with pirates is usually a lot of fun. (Yes, I did enjoy all of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Crap. That’s a lie. I enjoyed the original trilogy. I even liked Cutthroat Island!) Except this. Honestly one of the most boring films I’ve seen. Sure there were a small handful of jokes that got a laugh out of me. Though hearing I’m Not Crying by Flight of the Conchords got more of a laugh out of me. The most entertaining thing about this film was figuring out all the voice actors without IMDB’ing them.

Ask me to recall the plot and I won’t be able to. And as such, I can’t really think of what else to write about.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Viewed: 07/02/13 | Rating: 1/5)

Check out all of the films I’ve seen this year:

8 films so far…

  1. Flight (Viewed: 01/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  2. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Viewed: 09/01/13 | Rating: 3/5)
  3. Gangster Squad (Viewed: 15/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  4. Les Miserables (Viewed: 23/01/13 | Rating: 5/5)
  5. Django Unchained (Viewed: 25/01/13 | Rating: 5/5)
  6. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (Viewed: 27/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  7. Another Earth (Viewed: 29/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  8. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Viewed: 07/02/13 | Rating: 1/5)

22 Comments

  1. Wowwwww. The Bullet! LOL

    I wasnt a big fan either. It was way too dry for me. Somehow though, I always thought the british humor would translate better in Britain. Guess not, huh? LOL

    • All I kept wondering while watching was how the hell did it keep the attention of the kiddies. Usually there’s a decent balance between keeping the kids’ attention and amusing the adults. If I got bored, god know how the children felt. Think of the CHILDREN!

  2. I didn’t really think much of this either. Some parts were funny, but mostly it was too dry for me and lacked what made those Wallace & Gromit flicks so damn humorous. Good review Jaina.

    • The Wallace and Gromit films just have so much heart to them. It’s hard not to fall for those. This one lacked any sort of soul. At all.

  3. Mam and I just watched it on Sunday – we both enjoyed it. But then, I also said at the end “Well, I think that’s the first film about pirates I’ve ever enjoyed!” so perhaps it’s made for people who don’t like pirates!

    • Perhaps! Can you remind me what happened in the film, as you saw it so recently. I’ve totally forgotten now.

  4. Wow. I actually got quite a kick out of this one. I realize its dry sense of humor definitely isn’t for everyone, but I’m still surprised to see it get such a low score.

    • Really? I don’t mind dry humor. Usually enjoy it. But the humor just missed the mark for me. The uninteresting plot didn’t help either.

    • Aww thank you. Sad that the original ones I did got lost when my laptop went and died on me last week! Thankfully everything was on my NAS box except for some random bits on my desktop. Phew.

  5. Yeeesh, that’s harsh. I also didn’t think it was great, but I don’t think I was as bored as you. It certainly is probably the worst Aardman film, though the level of detail was great.

    • Definitely ranks under Flushed Away, which I wasn’t a fan of either. But at least that one felt like it had a plot and was going somewhere. Technically looked great, yes, but sad I wasted my time with it.

  6. Pirates and scientists? Who thought that sounded like a good idea? It sounds atrocious. Sorry you had to sit through this one.

  7. ‘The most entertaining thing about this film was figuring out all the voice actors without IMDB’ing them.’

    You know you’ve reached the pit of movie hell if that’s more entertaining to do than following the plotline! Giving this a miss if it ever dares cross my path, so thank you 🙂

    • Yeah, it’s on Sky at the moment and I wouldn’t recommend it at all, Jina. Sure it’s only short. But sadly it’s not mercifully short.

  8. Still haven’t seen it but somehow haven’t been interested in seeking it out despite enjoying the work of Aardman Studios previously. Now the chances of me seeing it any time soon are virtually nil. Thanks for the warning Jaina!

    • It’s kinda sad that this film got an Oscar nomination this year. That’s just how bad the animated films of the last year were!

  9. I only seen first 10 minutes. But I don’t know if it impressed me. Just a thought of mine, looked like a clay version of Pirates of Carribean? Well, I don’t know. Sorry if you hated it.

    • It is, in the sense that there are pirates, but it’s a very different sort of film with a much dryer sense of humor. Which misses the mark more times than hits. A lot more times.

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