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Reviews
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Worthy ending!
Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End is a great ending for a great series. The beginning in Singapore is not only good action but great comedy, and Jack Sparrow's hallucinations in Davy Jones's locker are nothing short of genius. As wonderful a character as he is, Jack was starting to get a bit stale after two movies of being just the same, which is why his character development was welcomed.
The only criticism I have has to do with the nothing-happening moments that were quite frequent especially in the middle; the story wasn't going on, and the characters merely talked and joked around. However, with such awesome characters and setting, any minute of Pirates is better than a minute without Pirates.
Of the actors especially Orlando Bloom deserves a special mention; he brought his character forward in huge leaps, and his emotions were true and convincing; Will is a real hero with a heart (no pun intended), and the audience feels it.
Keira Knightley gave her best performance as well, and her character was given welcome development; instead of being kick-ass all the time, she had to suffer and mature.
The end battle was absolutely breathtaking and alone worth seeing this movie. The ending was very surprising, something I hadn't quite been able to guess in a Disney movie. It was bittersweet and touching, but we got a ray of hope with the scene after the credits.
This movie was a worthy ending to one of the best movie series ever, even with a slightly complex plot that required a sharp eye and good knowledge of the previous movies.
Sibelius (2003)
Touching Movie About a Great Composer
This movie is simply fantastic. It is an artistic and wonderfully put together account of Finland's greatest composer of all times.
The criticism given to this movie unfortunately suffers from lack of understanding different ways of telling a story. You have to let go of the preconceived idea of that a movie about a person who really lived (and is a national icon in this case) should be absolutely and 100 % factual and in precise time line. This movie, like most others made of great men & women of the past, is the artistic view of one director. It is not a linear, straightforward, or factual story. From the very first minutes of the movie you can sense that this movie is supposed to be a collection of moments passing by, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. It is like viewing this man's life through slightly misty lenses that reveal only pieces here and there. It won't recite every fact of Sibelius' life nor present everything exactly in the order as it appeared in real life. For such stories, we have the documentary format and books. As the kind of artistic quilt of moments vowen together that this movie is, it is a masterpiece, and a very moving one. When I saw this in the movie theater here in Helsinki and the end texts appeared, the whole movie theater was dead silent. You could see tears in eyes, you sensed the moved atmosphere, you could have heard a needle drop. I have never witnessed anything like that in a movie theater in this country.
The main roles are well cast, especially Miina Turunen as Aino, and the overall settings and colouring are wonderful. Lahti Symphony with Osmo Vanska does an excellent work with the music, as always. Also, thumbs up for Koivusalo for showing a bit of patriotism, which nowadays seems to be drowned in the sea of "globalism". It is good that the youth of today sees how things were only about 100 years ago, and where we come from.
Thank you for a great movie, Mr Koivusalo. The DVD will go from me to all expat relatives and foreign friends!