Corporate Line: Russell Crowe is Lucky Jack Aubrey, the Navy’s greatest fighting captain and Paul Bettany is ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin. The ship, the Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy. With the Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey – the “Master” of the Surprise and “Commander” of his men – is torn between duty and friendship as he sets sail in a high-stakes chase across two oceans, to the far side of the world, to intercept and capture their foe. It’s a mission that can decide the fate of a nation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew. The film is based on the narrative outline of the tenth book in Patrick O’Brian’s legendary “Aubrey/Maturin” series of high seas novels about the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Good: The ships are well done. You get everything from the creaking, cracking, and sense you might toss your last meal amongst the waves.
The Bad: Our captain Jack Aubrey is on a quest to destroy the French but finds itself getting a surprise when the French ship Acheron gets the jump on him. While not bad on its own the story gets sidetracked by expeditions and everything else the director decides to put out as a speed bump. So often do you feel like you are wondering no where that you wonder how long you have to wait for anything interesting to happen aside from floating around the ocean.
The relationship between Aubrey and Maturin works at being interesting yet never is very satisfying. Other relationships are swallowed by the inability for us to connect with Crowe and his up-and-down personality. He’s stout, smart, and it doesn’t matter.
DVD Extras: A lack of commentary hurts the extras. The documentary and Sound Design featurettes are often more interesting than the film. A very cool multi-angle study of a few scenes allows you to view from many different angles. Wonderful. It’s bad when the bonuses are often better than the film.
Frankly: It might be treason but Pirates of the Caribbean is a much more satisfying movie. Swab the deck ya scurvy.
+ Charlie Craine
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