An Exciting Ending

Rating: 7/10 (14 August 2007)

The third installment of the pirate's franchise, At World's End, was a pleasant surprise. It was an action packed often overly complex plot with more pirates, more double crossing, and more characters than before.
Die hard pirate fans will be able to follow the path of who's betraying who, who's trying to save who, and who has their own agenda with ease - but for those unfamiliar with the first two pirate movies this movie might just be confusing.
The long length of the film may not appeal to some but the movie's not filled with fluff or filler. New characters (including Captain Sao Feng) explore new territory and keep the plot interesting. However, the plot is so meshed and intertwined with multiple stories that these supplementary stories do not get their proper justice. Tia Dalma's relationship with Davy Jones is mildly explored but mostly glazed over. The East India Trading company serves no other purpose than to be a hindrance and antagonist to the survival of the main characters - pirates.
Will and Elizabeth smooth out the kinks in their relationship (for Elizabeth it's mainly the implicit attraction she has for Jack and for Will it's his distancing himself from Elizabeth in order to save his father from servitude to Davy Jones). If you haven't had enough of Jack Sparrow yet then the third film offers more strangely appealing and flamboyant behavior from an enticing character. Will's intentions stay relatively stagnant as he continues to find a way to save his father and be with Elizabeth while making some unwise decisions - including attempting to make a deal with Beckett. Elizabeth asserts herself more as a pirate than a lady (finally) attempting to obliterate the stereotypical damsel in distress role she had in the first pirates movie. (Jack even makes a joke in AWE about Will needing Jack's help in order to save a damsel in distress).
Barbossa is one of the few characters with a linear plot. He wants to bring Calypso back - period. His intentions are static but his performance is anything but. Barbossa is a welcome return to the cast of characters.
The final battle sequence was choreographed and designed brilliantly and will certainly entertain.
The ending was the best surprise of the movie. In a very un-Disney like ending everyone doesn't walk into the sunset happy and satisfiedone of the main characters even gets killed. But things don't end as sad as it may appear as Disney finds a middle ground and creates a semi-pleasant and hopefully ending for pirate's fans.
Overall audiences will get more time with characters they love and a good if at times excessive story with some eye-catching locations and action.