Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush; Directed by Gore Verbinski
You know the drill, don’t you? You know what to expect. You know when you walk into a Pirates of the Caribbean movie that you will witness a lengthy show of wit, oddball characters, adventure, raucous action, romance, and visual splendor the likes of which has not been seen before. All of your favorite characters are back, and now there are new ones to keep track of. As for the plot of this 'final?' installment, there are two basic storylines here. First - In order to rescue Captain Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones Locker, Will, Elizabeth, Captain Barbossa, Tia Dalma, and the rest of their small company travel to Singapore to obtain a ship and crew from the treacherous Pirate Captain Sao Feng. Second - thanks to James Norrington, Lord Cutler Beckett has acquired the heart of Davy Jones, and is using the tentacled terrorizer to clear the seas of all traces of anything and anyone to do with pirates. These two threadlines intertwine, separate, split off into more threads, then weave together again into one of the most mind-boggling patchworks of twists and turns imaginable - all set within the frame of a three hour space of time. You better be rocking every node in your brain if you expect to stay on top of things.
By now, everyone is going to have their own preconceived opinion of these films. If you’ve been an avid fan since film one, then you will find something to like about the third. If you lost interest after Dead Man’s Chest, or never even made it past The Curse of the Black Pearl, then there’s little chance that you would even be bothering to read a review of At World’s End. But if you have found your way here, it says that your interest and/or curiosity is roused, and you’re looking for someone to tip you off as to whether you should bother spending your hard earned cash on a movie ticket.
Alas, my friends. It is not that easy, and this is why: I loved it. But you needn’t go very far (indeed, you needn’t go far from this site) to find someone who has become completely disenchanted with the entire show. The movies have flaws, no argument there. But for me, the good overcame the evil. There are new surprises to shock and delight us. On all counts, the acting has gotten better. Many people argue that Ms. Knightley and Mr. Bloom seem ‘tired’ with their roles, but I think people have just got this confused with a pair of young actors who have matured in the roles of characters who have also grown older in the world. These are not the same faint-hearted, naive youths who greeted us at the start, but aged and embattled souls who have made choices that plunged them into darker places than they perhaps ever wanted to go. This seems to be the general direction that the trilogy itself has taken. What was once a light, funny, family-oriented action/adventure comedy has become an unpredictable hurricane of calamity, heartbreak, and bittersweet redemption.
A lot of critics have turned their noses up at this franchise, criticized a few of the performances, accused Disney of milking a cash cow into two more unnecessarily long and confusing stories, and generally disregarding anything with so much mass appeal because it couldn’t possibly be any good. While some of these things may be true, I have to say that I loved being swept up in into the Pirates hurricane. I was enchanted, then confused, then enchanted again, but I never felt cheated or robbed. No, this is not the old Pirates. It could never, and should never have stayed where it had begun. People change, fate twists our roads, and the fires of trial and tribulation vomit us out onto strange and different shores. Screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio know how to tell a story, know the value of multi-dimensional characters, make good use of the English language, and know how to entertain the spit out of an audience. Director Gore Verbinski can silence a crowd with an opening scene, then keep our mouths hanging open as he raises the curtain on amazing visual after amazing visual. Composer Hans Zimmer gets our hearts and blood pounding with his score, and we have also been given a medley of multi-faceted characters who have been immortalized by Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, and dozens of other performers who have burned their influence into cinematic memory. Thanks guys. Fantasy action/adventure is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but you happen to be reading the opinion of someone who highly appreciates a fine story with ties to mythology, horror, and folklore. Scoff if you must, but as for me, these are films that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
At one point in the film, Jack muses over the concept of a potential everlasting existence.
“The immortal Captain Jack Sparrow.”
He smirks to himself, and so must we.
Thank you, and goodnight.
Grading:
Story = A-
Originality = A-
DVD Features = N/A
Acting = A
Enjoyability = A
Visuals = A
Overall = A
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