At Series' End, At Finest End

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2009)

It's a bit funny that the third Pirates of the Caribbean film is titled "At World's End" when this is what we see and go through within the first thirty or so minutes in. And given the film's near three hour runtime, it leaves far more to the film than the title might imply. Yet this is rightfully so, given the introduced circumstances and cliffhanger ending to Dead Man's Chest. Going in the Matrix sequel route, At World's End saw itself released very shortly after its predecessor, especially for a sequel. Not surprisingly, both sequels to both franchises were met with very mixed reception, almost having nothing but lovers or haters of each of the films (unless I'm hearing talk of another Pirates of the Caribbean film series). That said, what's one more guy's opinion?
The two things At World's End seems to demand of its viewers are patience and multiple viewings. For a first viewing, it's quite easy to get lost with the plot in how it seems to twist and turn all over the place and makes the lengthy runtime seem inadequate in regards to fleshing the story out. Due to this, the film can be argued to have some pacing issues, though after seeing the film enough times the story comes off as far more cohesive and doesn't seem nearly as uneven in its pacing as before. While watching the same two hour and forty-nine minute film multiple times might seem demanding, it's ultimately worth it in the long run.
Other areas the film has drawn plenty of flak is in regards to the characters, the acting and dialogue. Yet this is another area I must respectfully disagree. While Depp and Rush might not be nearly as good or charming in this film as they were in Curse of the Black Pearl, they, as with the rest of the cast, do a more than sufficient job fitting back into their roles. Knightley definitely does her most charismatic acting in this film of the current Pirates trilogy (as of the writing of this review) which, admittedly can sometimes come off as over the top, though most of the time she fares well enough, and certainly a lot better than just about any other actress around her age would have. Orlando Bloom also at least deserves some credit for this film since he tackles a more down, serious and emotionally torn character. He's far from the best young actor out there, but as far as I'm concerned, he does a solid job in this film and, like Knightley, pulls off arguably his best acting job in the series. The rest of the supporting cast are just as well, with Bill Nighy standing out once again doing a great job as Davy Jones.
Easily the film's greatest strength though is its entire presentation. The film is excellently shot, with little to no lack of great cinematography. As with its predecessors, the special effects are top notch, and we get plenty of this demonstration in the last action scene towards the end. Speaking of the action scenes, while there's not too many of them, what are present are definitely amazing, with the aforementioned final action scene being quite impressive. Yet it's the film's amazing score that really sells the picture. While it hasn't garnered much attention make no mistake the score pieces throughout the picture are wonderfully placed and used to great effect. Many scenes in the film work so well thanks to the superb score. Not many films seem to utilize the potential of fitting score placement well enough, but this film pulls it off with ease and can easily win you over just for that.
Judging by what I've said, I think it's easy to determine my regards towards the film. One key reason for this is because this is a film that becomes more rewarding with each repeated viewing; another viewing lets me take notice of several things that really make this film so much more than the majority I've seen recently. Call it blasphemy, but I hold this film as superior to Curse of the Black Pearl and definitely higher than the sub-par Dead Man's Chest. This film feels more complete, doesn't suffer dragging on as much from multiple viewings (the one major weak point of the first film), has far less of the silly, unnecessary jokes which plagued the second film and wraps the trilogy's story arc up satisfyingly while leaving us curious as to what will happen next. Give the film the time and it will grow on you. Watch it once or little more than once and you'll likely hold in "mid-series" regard at best. Patience is a virtue.