I'm thinking the theme is freedom.

For those who don't want to register, another bit from the BOM interview:

Box Office Mojo: What is the meaning of the series?

Ted Elliott: It's a study of what is a pirate. How free can you really be? What are those trade-offs? Jack kind of represents the ultimate free man—he really has no obligations to anybody, and, obviously, if you make an obligation to somebody, you're limiting your own freedom. But, if you're not willing to limit your own freedom, you can't have those relationships. If you look at Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest from that point of view, you kind of see what really leads to Jack's ultimate fate and why Elizabeth does what she does.

I saw Supes and liked it. One of my main thoughts about the climax was "That's a lot of water displacement, man."

I guess he'll just fly around the earth really fast when he feels better and undo any tsunami damage .

Had Meryl Streep Fest last night. We went to Prairie Home Companion and Devil Wears Prada. I enjoyed parts of PHC, but it felt like there was no movie there. It didn't have the usual Altman genius with a messy sprawl of characters who all belong in the same world and also define that world. Here the characters never coalesced and it felt as if they were in different movies.

Liked Prada. Streep was a perfect evil boss. The fashon stuff was fun, although the plot was awfully. predictable. Still, fun. And could Anne Hathaway be more beautiful? I don't think so. And may I add that Adrian Grenier has the most adorable little smile ever.

I really want to see The Devil Wears Prada.

Meanwhile question for the Pirate watching folks:

So I just got into this discussion about Norrington and his behavior. She feels like they totally reamed his character that in the first movie he was motivated by honor and therefore everything he did in the second movie was out of character. My feeling is that yeah - he was motivated by honor and he made that decision to let Jack and Will go but by doing so he committed treason and disgraced himself in society's eyes -- therefore it was understandable to me that he would have wound up where he was in the second movie. Also, I thought that he had to stay away from the authorities to avoid the gallows. She thought that he was safe because he resigned his commission. I also think that having been outside of society, living rough -- he finds he doesn't like it and is prepared to do what he feels he must to get back. Obviously, he can't go all the way back -- but he can get back enough that he has a job of sorts.

What do you guys think?

sumi- I got the impression that resigning his post was not a direct result of letting Jack and Will go, but that he had somehow disgraced himself by spending alll his time and energy trying ot catch Jack. I thought this was mentioned in the film, but I could be making that up. I figured he became obsessed and kind of crazed trying to fulfill was he saw has his duty and now he is disillusioned and bitter.

And could Anne Hathaway be more beautiful?

Not legally.

Regarding Norrington - somewhere they make it clear that he was forced out for losing his ship monomaniacally chasing Jack by going into the hurricane. He didn't just resign his comission but was forced out in disgrace.

Hec, thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't remember all the details. I think I need to go see it again.

Ah, therefore the sad scruffy drunkenness did make sense?

I also discovered that whereas I thought at the end of POTC1 that Will had embraced his pirateness and wasn't going to marry Elizabeth and then set up house over his smithy - my friend thought the opposite. I really thought that he was dressed for the wedding at the beginning of the movie and that once married he and Elizabeth would have to leave. I guess I was wrong there too. How much time do you guys figure had passed between 1 & 2?