Izzu162
Petaling
This review may contain spoilers
Not quite the sequel you'd expect
Having watched the first film this one was based on, I was expecting a new adventure featuring our favourite pirates and bandits team in action again, despite the change of casts. But it turned out that this film was somewhat of a reimagination of the original Pirates 2014 movie.
Like the first movie, this one features a group of pirates led by a female captain as well as a group of bandits who were former Goryeo soldiers. But unlike the first film, this one didn't really spare some time to build up the main character's origins. Unlike Yeowol, Haerang was already a captain of her own ship without revealing much of how she ended up in that position. And as much as Haerang did have a scene where she and Muchi had been saved by a whale, Haerang's connection with the whales wasn't as deep as Yeowol's in the first film. And as much as Haerang kept referring to her crew as her family, I can't quite relate to her the way I did with Yeowol as we're never really shown much of Haerang's past to make us see as to why family was important to her.
Likewise, Wu Muchi also seemed to have some similarities with Jang Sajung, but unlike Sajung... Muchi wasn't really quite as charming and charismatic as Sajung. And similar to Haerang, Muchi's past wasn't as developed as Sajung was. The film didn't really gave impression that Muchi actually spent much time being a bandit prior to being rescued by Haerang. Unlike Sajung, Muchi felt more like a pretentious, homeless man calling himself a bandit. Even as his past as a former Goryeo soldier was revealed, his character still felt unconvincing.
That said, there are few other similar points that was similar with the first film. One, this film also had a mention of Lee Seonggye and other notable characters of the time but unlike the first film, the connection was pretty vague. There were also some parallels between Mo Honggap and Boo Heungsoo who were the sworn enemies of Sajung and Muchi respectively, but like everything else in this film it was depicted very shallow. Kwangsoo's character in the film seemed to take the role of Yoo Haejin's character in the first one, but it felt like this movie relied too much on Kwangsoo's betrayer trope from Running Man to deliver the comic relief, which doesn't really work all the time.
On its own, this film was quite enjoyable with some bit of fighting and adventures on the high seas. But if you've already seen the 2014 film, watching this one would feel a bit underwhelming. The comedic element in this film was more slapstick compared to the first one and personally, I didn't feel that the jokes to be as funny as they were in the 2014 film. The same could be said about the romance element in this movie.
Unlike the first film, this second one was quite weak in terms of story. As much as some of the visuals were quite stunning, I couldn't quite immerse myself into the story as much as I did the first. I feel like this film would've been better without the whole pirate king sequence as well as the wholw Haerang can't cook joke because it took away the opportunity to properly develop the relationship between Haerang and Muchi. Other than Muchi pestering her about liking him or scenes of Haerang cooking badly and force feeding Muchi food, we don't really see how the two ended up really liking each other. Not like how Sajung and Yeowol did because they were forced to stay together for a while due to them being chained together. In that sense, Haerang-Muchi's relationship felt shallow compared to Yeowol-Sajung's relationship.
One can say that this second film was a much sillier take of the 2014 film. And as much as the visuals and CGI was much better in this film, it end up being lacking in terms of writing.
Like the first movie, this one features a group of pirates led by a female captain as well as a group of bandits who were former Goryeo soldiers. But unlike the first film, this one didn't really spare some time to build up the main character's origins. Unlike Yeowol, Haerang was already a captain of her own ship without revealing much of how she ended up in that position. And as much as Haerang did have a scene where she and Muchi had been saved by a whale, Haerang's connection with the whales wasn't as deep as Yeowol's in the first film. And as much as Haerang kept referring to her crew as her family, I can't quite relate to her the way I did with Yeowol as we're never really shown much of Haerang's past to make us see as to why family was important to her.
Likewise, Wu Muchi also seemed to have some similarities with Jang Sajung, but unlike Sajung... Muchi wasn't really quite as charming and charismatic as Sajung. And similar to Haerang, Muchi's past wasn't as developed as Sajung was. The film didn't really gave impression that Muchi actually spent much time being a bandit prior to being rescued by Haerang. Unlike Sajung, Muchi felt more like a pretentious, homeless man calling himself a bandit. Even as his past as a former Goryeo soldier was revealed, his character still felt unconvincing.
That said, there are few other similar points that was similar with the first film. One, this film also had a mention of Lee Seonggye and other notable characters of the time but unlike the first film, the connection was pretty vague. There were also some parallels between Mo Honggap and Boo Heungsoo who were the sworn enemies of Sajung and Muchi respectively, but like everything else in this film it was depicted very shallow. Kwangsoo's character in the film seemed to take the role of Yoo Haejin's character in the first one, but it felt like this movie relied too much on Kwangsoo's betrayer trope from Running Man to deliver the comic relief, which doesn't really work all the time.
On its own, this film was quite enjoyable with some bit of fighting and adventures on the high seas. But if you've already seen the 2014 film, watching this one would feel a bit underwhelming. The comedic element in this film was more slapstick compared to the first one and personally, I didn't feel that the jokes to be as funny as they were in the 2014 film. The same could be said about the romance element in this movie.
Unlike the first film, this second one was quite weak in terms of story. As much as some of the visuals were quite stunning, I couldn't quite immerse myself into the story as much as I did the first. I feel like this film would've been better without the whole pirate king sequence as well as the wholw Haerang can't cook joke because it took away the opportunity to properly develop the relationship between Haerang and Muchi. Other than Muchi pestering her about liking him or scenes of Haerang cooking badly and force feeding Muchi food, we don't really see how the two ended up really liking each other. Not like how Sajung and Yeowol did because they were forced to stay together for a while due to them being chained together. In that sense, Haerang-Muchi's relationship felt shallow compared to Yeowol-Sajung's relationship.
One can say that this second film was a much sillier take of the 2014 film. And as much as the visuals and CGI was much better in this film, it end up being lacking in terms of writing.
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