Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At Patience End

Rating: 5/10 (29 May 2007)

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End - Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) Elizabeth Swan (Kiera Knightly) and a host of too many other people go and rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from a sort of purgatory because they need him to help overturn the East India Trading Company and defeat Davey Jones. It's a plot that shouldn't be too too complicated, but boy it endeavors to make your head spin. I loved the first two Pirates films and pretty much knew the characters and plot lines, but I still couldn't fathom some character's motivations or why some things were happening. It felt at times like the directors were putting the movie together by way of a jigsaw puzzle.
I found no fault in the acting. Depp was great as usual, but being that these films are more or less him, it is questionable as to why he's given so little to do. Geoffrey Rush is great though tame this time. Knightly is fine, though I don't know who thought it was a good idea to rip off Braveheart. Bloom, funny enough, gives his best performance in any of the trilogy. Bill Nighy turns in a better performance than last time as Davy Jones.
There's no fault in the acting or special effects, though there's little notable action and nothing that approaches the brilliance of the three way swordfight in #2. This movie hinted at a sort of mad brilliance on ocassion, but like Spider-man 3, just seemed to be too high on it's own popularity.
The script by far carries the brunt of the fault here. There were far too many ridiculous plot-holes and vague explanations. Also like SM3 there were too many unnecessary plot lines. Why the hell was Tia Dalma given so much (and yet so little) to do? Her plot-line was pointless. Why was Chow Yun Fat in this movie if he had nothing to do? How did the main cast get to Singapore if they didn't have a crew or a ship? The film is too long and overdrawn. You could have cut about an hour from this film and it probably would've been better. There's fun to be had, but the lasting feeling is irritation.
This was one of those movies that I really wanted to like and for the critics to be wrong about. But they're right. The movie is mediocre, and that's a shame. I hope one of the "Third" movies this summer will break the curse, one even more horrible than that caused by cursed Aztec gold. My favorite films are being tarnished by these lackluster sequels. Screw the horror re-makes. In 10-15 years time, I know what we'll be remaking.
This gets a C