At World's End

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2007)

The more I think about this movie, the more I like it. This is strange, considering my low expectations. The first film was fun, and I was very happy to see swashbuckling returning to movies, but I never really bought into the script. I wasn't convinced that pirates were some sort of blood-bound "race", and I was powerfully confused by the distance between and physical relationships of various locations. But, still good fun. The second film just kind of made me mad; I loved the ending, but it was just one example of how much it was a standard sequel: every single quirk of the first film was referenced, every single character had to return, and it HAD to be structured - nay, plotted - like Empire Strikes Back. This included re-introducing the Han Solo-Leia love story where the female lead wants the anti-hero, just to appease all the screaming Johnny Depp fans. It begged to be liked, but aside from a great score, great effects, and some very funny moments, it just came off as trite.
And then we get At World's End, which has everything you could possibly want in a pirate fantasy film: Legendary ships riddling each other with cannon fire in a whirlpool, screaming buccaneers swinging from one ship to the next, sword-fights on crow's nests, and all that in about fifteen minutes. The rest is an admittedly convoluted story that is much more clearly plotted than the second film, while still taking breaks for letting us spend time with characters we weren't so sure about last time, but are once again fond of. Maybe it's Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, or the overall simplicity of the plot, but it just worked, and I had a great time.
I was legitimately surprised and concerned at what the plot did with our heroes and villains, and was very satisfied with everyone's status in the end. I guess I wouldn't mind seeing another Pirates movie now, but I kind of think everything that needs to be done is in this film.
I can't wrap up without mentioning the very nice abstract stuff Verbinksi and co. did with the journey to Davey Jones' Locker. It takes guts to do really surreal stuff with a $300 million Happy Meal blockbuster, but they really did some new, interesting things with their bottomless bag of tricks.
A- Curse of the Black Pearl: B+ Dead Man's Chest: B