PotC

[magid]

I was listening to a review of the newest Pirates of the Carribbean movie, and heard a noun compound that made me even less likely to pay money to see it (especially given how I've missed all the others so far): "vampire mermaids." I suppose it's easy enough to stay out of the sun in the depths, anyway, but really?! No wonder people are concerned about eating seafood ;-P And if they're in the recent (stupid) representation of sparkly vampires, well, there's all those water droplets that make that less foolish if one is already a mermaid.

(And it makes me think of other, somewhat more successful noun compunds, such as zombie ninjas (or robot pirates, though that's a paid download), perhaps because they're not taking themselves seriously.)

Comments

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

FWIW, they weren't vampires, they just had big scary fangs and dried out if you left them out of the water in the sun for too long. I stand by my review; it's not a great movie (see it at the Somerville or something) but honestly, the mermaid subplot was one of the better ones in the film.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Drying out makes sense, but big fangs? I want my mythical beings traditional, dammit! Not sparkly, or fanged (unless fanged, of course), etc.

Really, the only way I'd end up seeing this were I with a group of friends who dragged me along; I don't bother starting with the fourth in a franchise. (Heck, I've never seen any but the first Star Wars....)

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

I agree, mermaids aren't supposed to be fangy, but I can sort of understand the laziness that led to the shorthand. You're a filmmaker. You've got creatures who are mostly human in appearance except for their lower half and most of the time only their faces are above the water. They're exceedingly pretty. A seaman is leaning down to get a big wet kiss, it makes a certain amount of sense from a visual (and probably Freudian) point of view for their transition from beauty to horror be oral. Lots of other ways they could have done it (shark teeth in particular would have been cool) but I didn't mind the fangs all that much.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

We heard that on the radio the other day and both burst out laughing.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me :-).