"So tell me, what has become of my ship?"

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2007)

"So tell me, what has become of my ship?" (the surprising appearance of Barbossa coming down the stairs, biting into an apple, monkey squeals, music begins, credits roll) is without a doubt the most spectacular ending to a movie that I can recall. It wowed me, it wowed my family, It wowed everybody I talked to! Disney brilliantly left you hanging and yearning for "At Worlds End" before "Dead Man's Chest" was even over.
"Dead Man's Chest" and the "The Curse of the Black Pearl", are two solid ten star movies in my bookbrilliantly written, clever yet witty, full of content and substance with most everything logically justified. The acting is superb with well detailed characters from Jack on down to the wenches of Tortuga. The music of Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt eloquently set the mood and savvy through out the movies.
OK, now that Disney has set us up with big expectations for "At World's End", we counted down the days, for almost 1 year, until World's End hit the box office. Wait! Didn't the writers of "At Worlds End" even watch the first two movies, specifically the second? Of course they did, they wrote them too. (Well then how come so many things were not resolved and the ones that were "resolved", were resolved so weakly?) Must be a case of amnesia.
Examples: - The romantic tension between Elizabeth and Jack wasn't addressed. - What are the details behind Tia Dalma's resurrection of Barbossa? - The Kraken is dead on the beach, was this explained? - Who made the rule about whoever stabs Davy Jones' heart takes Jones' place? This was CLEARLY not the case in Dead Man's; remember Will almost stabbing it. - I may be mistaken but wasn't that Barbossa lying down in the background at Tia's shack (you can see his boot when Jack and the gang delivered the undead monkey to Tia Dalma)? If so, this wasn't revealed. - Not enough solidification for the East India Trading Co. - Even the dog magically appeared like Davy Jones would.
No apples for Barbossa, no mill wheel sword fights, no bone cages, no clever scenes like stealing the Interceptor ("that's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen" from Black Pearl). Where did all the rum go? Oh that's right, Elizabeth torched it in Black Pearl. Where was all the slick and witty lines from Jack? No, I don't savvy.
Too much studio shooting, too much dependence on computer generated effects. I had to remind myself more than once this is a pirate movie. Even the rope swings between ships were awkward and fake looking. I miss the dazzling Caribbean "on location" scenes, what's with all this gray gloom?
I won't say I dislike the movie, however I was enormously disappointed. Disney escalated the expectations but didn't delivery. This movie was supposed to have been greatmaybe even brilliant like the first two. Maybe I will feel better once I watch it with captions.