Review: ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’

Zac:

At World’s End is the solid, but a bit underwhelming, conclusion to the Pirates trilogy. Everyone returns, plus a couple of new faces, to finish the battle for the high seas with amazing special effects and a convoluted plot. World’s End opens with a ridiculous mass hanging scene that sets the wheels in motion for a meeting of the pirate lords because the people being to sing, not a good start. We are then introduced to Sao Feng, the pirate lord of Singapore, played by Chow Yun-Fat and the beginning of a long twisting all over the place plot begins. The movie thinks it is clever by just being overly complicated, and while it makes sense after a viewing or two, it is all a bit much. Throw in a entirely over drawn and self indulgent scene of Jack Sparrow in a purgatory like Davy Jones Locker, and the first hour of this movie can try your patience. But once everyone is together again the movie gets going and is more enjoyable as it goes along. The plot continues to twist in and out of itself and overall some scenes feel bloated, but if you enjoy the franchise you will be able to endure any of these missteps along the way.
Another misstep is the lack of Davy Jones and the great Bill Nighy. After being right in front of everything in the last film, while also being the best thing about the new one, he is pushed to the background for much of the film and isn’t given the amount of time he deserves; especially when his role is still very major in the crux of the final outcome of it all. I also believe it is not coincidence that the movie is at it’s best at the end when Davy Jones is most involved in the film.
Johnny Depp continues his solid work as well as the fantastic Capt. Jack Sparrow while providing a majority of the comedy in the film. Sharing the rest of the comedy load is Geoffery Rush in his return as Capt. Barbossa and his monkey Jack. The banter between the dueling captains is great and Rush has some of the best one liners from the film. Jack the monkey gets most of the cute site gags and they are successful most of the time.
One thing this film does better then the middle child of the series, Dead Man’s Chest, is the avoiding of blatant rehashed new spins of the same jokes from Curse of the Black Pearl. While they are still around, they don’t blatantly make the point of, ‘look its the same joke from the previous movie, look how clever we are to work it back in here, because we can’t think of anything original,’ like in the second film.
The production value on these films is beyond belief, the movie looks as expensive as it cost and it allows us to buy into this world easily. Direction by Gore Verbinski is very well done, with some great cinematography; you just wish he could have gotten a bit more out of his romantic leads Knightley and Bloom who both seem a bit too dialed in.
Overall a fun conclusion, that had ridiculous expectations, and will grow on audiences as repeat viewings ensue; it did this one.

[rating: 3.75/5]