REVIEW
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Can’t Quite Live Up to its Own Hype

Watch-able but ultimately lacking the pizzazz, grandeur and success of the original outing, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is an undertaking of such massive proportions that it was destined to fall short in one way or another. Thinking of Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End as one long extended story sheds a bit of light on final segment of the swashbuckling trilogy . . . but it still feels as if Director Gore Verbinski and writing duo Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio went into production blindfolded, swinging haphazardly at a huge piñata of storyline, plot and substance, sometimes connecting with rounding success and other times missing all together.

In a summer filled with blockbuster releases all dripping with the promise of huge audiences and record-breaking commercial success – Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3, and Ocean’s Thirteen just to name a few - it would seem Disney felt the pressure to perform and perform well.  But while moving the release date considerably forward allowed At World’s End to compete in the early summer box office slaughter, the abridged time in post production left the film somewhat choppy, at times jerky and ultimately a tad bit disappointing.    

Beginning with Lord Cutler Beckett’s (Tom Hollander) endless succession of suspected pirate and pirate supporter hangings, At World’s End picks up right where Dead Man’s Chest left off with Will (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and the newly alive Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) taking the steps necessary to find Davy Jones locker and rescue Jack. Standing in their way is the man who possesses the only map to the locker - Captain Sao Fang (an underused Chow Yun-Fat). After negotiations in Singapore turn predictably sour, the rag-tag crew manages to make off with both ship and map, setting a course for World’s End.

After a harrowing journey hugely reminiscent of the Odyssey, the crew finds Jack in the depths of the locker, dining on peanuts and directing a ship full of Jack Sparrows with remarkable alacrity. With Jack back, the crew reluctantly bands together to respond to the pirate call evoked by Beckett’s hanging massacre. Events spin out of control, back into control and then out again, all the while building to a final showdown in which Lord Beckett’s armada, led by the Flying Dutchman and the virtually enslaved Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), faces off with the Black Pearl and the outnumbered, seemingly advantage-less pirates in the shadow of Shipwreck Cove.

With crazy twists, turns, spirals, loops, starts and stops, the film limps along under the load of a few too many story-lines, excessive ulterior motives and an almost vexing plethora of internal character dilemmas.  Keeping events, motives and connections straight is almost as mentally taxing as consuming the never-ending onslaught of special effects and overly intense action sequences.

But despite its sporadic, overwhelming storyline, At World’s End still musters up its fair share of enjoyment, enjoyment due in large part to its beloved characters. As with The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is once again the heart and soul of story, scenario and scene. However, being trapped in the locker, Sparrow doesn’t stumble onto screen until almost an hour into the film – a move that severely tries the patience. But despite the slightly ridiculous delay in screen time, Depp’s uncannily flawless delivery of lines like, “Permit me to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket” and his wonderful shooing of nosy rocks fully entrenches Sparrow in the center of every audience member’s heart.

Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly do an impressive job in the roles of doe-eyed but ever-conflicted lovers Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan.  Their relationship has made the oh-so-natural transition from forbidden cross-class love affair to mutinous showdowns and one-ups between two untrusting pirates - And after there shared escapades throughout the film, Will and Elizabeth are both officially pirates.

The smorgasbord of supporting characters, villains turned heroes, heroes turned villains and out-and-out bad guys are a all a feast as well – a feast that like the rest of the movie can at times be a bit too much.

All in all, if you were looking to have all your questions from Dead Man’s Chest answered, you watched At World’s End in vain. In its opening sequence, the film doesn’t answer any questions – just poses many more. And the choice for viewers is simple: Go with the film or sit in frustration.  And considering the investment fans have put into the franchise thus far, neither option is fully satisfying.