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Pirates
of the Caribbean: At World's End
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rated: PG-13
Directed
by: Gore
Verbinski
Starring: Johnny
Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey
Rush, Naomie Harris, Chow Yun-Fat, Jack Davenport,
Tom Hollander, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, Keith
Richards
Released by: Walt Disney
Pictures
In
Short: One movie too many, this jumbled,
boring and way too long third visit
to the world of the Pirates of the Caribbean
is a sad end to the popular series. |
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Sad
Sequel
Three
is No Charm
by
Jenny Peters
For
a franchise that began so wonderfully five years ago
with “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of
the Black Pearl,” this third installment known
as “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s
End” makes for sad viewing. Yes, Johnny Depp is
still charming as Captain Jack Sparrow, Keira Knightley
breathtaking as Elizabeth Swann, and Orlando Bloom heroically
handsome as Will Turner, but that’s where the similarities
end.
For “At World’s End” has none of
the freshness, magic or charm of the first, nor the goofily
funny sequences that made “Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man’s Chest” a worthy sequel. Instead,
this jumbled tale that tries to tie up the Davy Jones
story floated in the second flick is just a mess.
Even
sadder, all of the actors, including Rolling Stones
guitarist Keith Richards, who appears as Sparrow’s
rouge pirate father, seem to be struggling to keep themselves
interested. Most seem to have lost that battle and are
just going through the motions, which leads to a general
feeling of ennui that pervades the film, even in the
midst of the extended final sea-battle sequence, as the
pirates battle the British forces, who have aligned themselves
with Davy Jones and his undead crew.
Huh?
Why, you might ask, are the British on the side of
the undead in this one? Therein lies the question,
one of many plot points in the flick that seem to be
incoherently cobbled together. It’s never quite
clear what the heck is going on in this close-to-three-hour
nonsense. Who is still alive, who is dead but not acting
like it, who is really and truly dead, why the world’s
pirates all band together to chase Davy Jones (when it
is Captain Jack’s problem of paying off his soul-selling
debt to the guy that is at the center of the story);
it’s all a muddle, and never really explained.
It just makes no sense.
And
perhaps the worst sin of all, this “Pirates” offering
is boring, even when the assembled talent is gamely swashbuckling
around, in that finale that feels interminable, rather
than supremely exciting as a grand ending to the trilogy.
What came in five years ago with a delightful and triumphant
roar goes out with a dull whimper. As a real pirate would
sadly say upon viewing this confusion, “Arggghhh!”
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