Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World's End is the
third, and hopefully final, movie in a series that started fun and ended in a
complete, incoherent mess.
This is the part of the review
where I usually try to describe a little of the plot. I hesitate for fear
my brain might explode, but here's the best I can do. The crew goes to
the end of the world to rescue Jack (where he's gone crazy and multiplied),
faces their foes Davy Jones and Lord Beckett, and risks releasing Calypso…all
while betraying and reuniting with each other every five seconds. My
suggestion is that you just tune out the voices and watch the phenomenal
special effects.
When this movie isn't terrible,
it's only mediocre at best. The acting is decent, and those that are
great (like Depp) could be seen giving equal performances in the first film.
So How Does It End?
Sao Feng (Chow Yun Fat) is not
given the screen time he deserved. Only about 15 minutes of face time is
just not enough for such a great actor. From the previews it seemed that
he was to be a major character, however, it just didn't turn out that way.
Norrington's Death was
shabby. He redeemed himself by helping Elizabeth and her crew but his
death should've been by someone at least in their right mind.
Barbossa releases Calypso, the
goddess of the sea, who has been trapped in the body of Tia Dalma. She
grows to the size of a 40 foot woman and then, as if she wasn't hard enough to
understand with a Cajun accent, she starts yelling like Satan, crumbles into a
thousand crabs and leaves the audience scratching its head. After that all she
does is create a maelstrom thats seems to be so huge it doesnt swallow the
Flying Dutchman or the Black Pearl for nearly a half hour. Even then the
Black Pearl somehow miraculously is able to pull out of it.
Elizabeth and William get married
while in the middle of a sword fight with the crew from the Flying
Dutchman. Yes, after fighting and lying and not trusting each other for
two hours (four hours if you count the second movie), we're supposed to be
excited about their final union.
William frees his father from Davy
Jones, but receives a fatal stab in the process. Right before death they
help him stab the heart and now he will be the Captain of the Flying Dutchman
and can only see Elizabeth
one day every ten years. This would have been really tragic if I actually
felt something about their love affair.
Lord Beckett is defeated. His
death scene is definitely going on my top ten list of the most ridiculous
things I've ever seen. Seriously, if there's ever a tornado, this guy
could save you. He's able to walk calmly through an exploding ship
without getting hit by a SINGLE piece of shrapnel!
Beckett's army retreats even though
they have thousands of ships and the pirates only have nine. Makes
sense to me.
If you stay after the credits
you'll get a lovely scene of Elizabeth
going to meet William after ten years with their now nine year old son.
The scene after the credits should have been the director apologizing for
wasting the last three hours of your life.
The curse of the captain of the
Flying Dutchman should have been better explained. Pam (Dutchess
Lucrezia) had some info on the curse which would have been a really great piece
of info to have known:
"The captain of the Flying
Dutchman curse can be broken and that's why Davy Jones was so furious with
Calypso. If the captain's true love is waiting for him when he comes ashore
after 10 years the spell is broken and he is no longer bound to the ship - he's
free to live a normal mortal life on land again. A new captain is chosen to continue
the 10 year cycle. When Davy returned to shore after the first 10 years Calypso
was not there to meet him. The curse was not broken and he was doomed to remain
captain for eternity. SO when Will comes back after the first ten years (since
Liz is waiting for him with their son) the spell is broken and Will can join
his family for the rest of his life."
Yeah thanks to the writers of the movie... we didn't freakin know that!
This information is definately important, don't you think??
If you're in the mood for a pirate
movie, go buy the first one and pretend the two sequels never existed.