At Worlds End is Visually Stunning but falls short of expectations

Rating: 1/10 (2 June 2007)

The third and possibly last chapter of the Pirates of the Caribbean series has amazing special effects and battle sequences, but unfortunately, has lost the magic it once had.
After Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), Will (Orlando Bloom), and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) rescue Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the land of the dead, they must face their foes, Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) and Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander). Beckett, now with control of Jones' heart, forms a dark alliance with him in order to rule the seas and wipe out the last of the Pirates. Now, Jack, Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth, Tia Delma, and crew must call the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the globe, including the infamous Sao Feng (Chow-Yun Fat), to a gathering. The Pirate Lords want to release the goddess Calypso, Davey Jones's damned lover, from the trap they sent her to out of fear, in which the Pirate Lords must combine the 9 pieces that bound her by ritual to undo it and release her in hopes that she will help them fight. With this, all pirates will stand together and will make their final stand for freedom against Beckett, Jones, Norrington, the Flying Dutchman, and the entire East India Trading Company.
At World's End has some of the most amazing action sequences I have witnessed in a long time. The film itself is visually stunning and good to look at. Director Gore Verbinski captures stunning shots. I would recommend seeing this movie just because of these very reasons.
After the very entertaining Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest, At World's End has clearly lost its magic. The movie is nowhere near as funny as the others. I sat there rolling my eyes at the "funny parts." For instance, in At World's End, Jack suddenly has this "multiple personality" which the writers threw in there to try and grab a few laughs. The first time they appear is when Jack is stuck at world's end. Now at this part, it was funny, I admit I laughed a few times. However, once the crew rescue's Jack, the multiple Jack's should have stopped, but the writers just kept it going to the point where they just became plain annoying! One of the very cringe worthy parts is when one of the multiple Jack's is a skeleton and screams, "Nobody move! I think I lost my brain." Really, is that supposed to be funny?
The first 20 minutes or so of the movie are very promising, but once they rescue Jack, the plot just goes downhill. I sat there for almost the whole movie having no idea what was going on. My friend and I were leaning over to each other constantly asking each other what was going on. Once the movie was over I did feel kind of dumb for not understanding the movie, however, afterwards I was talking to many people and even some of the smartest people I know, didn't even understand what was going on. Sure you can say that you go to see a Pirate movie for the action and not story lines, but come on, there's a certain extent as to how little of a storyline there can be.
The amazing battle sequence near the end is almost ruined by one of the most cheesy and dumbest scenes of the trilogy. Right in the middle of battle Will asks Elizabeth to marry him right there and now since it might be their only chance. She agrees and they yell for Barbossa to perform the ceremony because it states in Dead Man's Chest that captains have the power to perform weddings. The writers must have thought that this would be a great way to grab even more laughs but it just creates groans and eye rolling. I understand that it might be their only time but it still felt really cheesy and dumb. The reason why it felt like that is because they're saying their vows while fighting and killing the enemies and you can clearly see that it was intended to be funny but it just wasn't.
The best performances of the movie go to Geoffrey Rush who is extremely convincing as Barbossa and has the right voice and everything for a pirate, and Johnny Depp who has been great throughout the whole trilogy but does seem less funny. Keira Knightly gives one of the worst performances of her career. She is just extremely awful in this movie it's painful to think about. Orlando Bloom was good but not great.
All in all, At World's End was a major disappointment, with failed attempts at being funny and a really confusing plot, and there are still many things which I disliked but don't have enough space for it. However I am recommending it just because it is a Pirates movie and if you are a fan of the first two you should still go see it, and the performances of Depp and Rush really make the movie slightly enjoyable, nevertheless because of the many problems of the film, At World's End rates at 2/10 and is one of the major disappointments of the year so far.