That nose...

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2007)

Yes, the reviews are mixed, and yes, it's perhaps not as pure as the first one, but I've waited a year for the Pirates story to continue and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I'd give "At World's End" 9 stars, being every bit as entertaining as it was often overwhelming.
It's quite an age we live in that visual effects have become so believable, as long as they're done correctly. Pirates 3 is no exception, it looks and **sounds** absolutely fantastic and makes it a superbly thrilling jaunt to view on the big screen with the big speakers.
I braved Towson Commons to see it. Towson Commons has a bathroom with an inch of urine, a carpet eternally soaked in popcorn topping and coke, no legroom, often forgets to turn out the lights, and usually hosts people who wave their glowing camera-phones around or converse with characters on the screen as if they could hear them. (I saw it again tonight at the Senator. It stood up quite well to a second viewing, especially since there's so much to take in.) But I'll tell you something: this new Pirates film sucked me in so far, I forgot what theater I was in, and for a moment, that I was even in a theater, but in Davy Jone's Locker. "2001″ is clearly an inspiration in Jack's purgatory, which isn't a bad thing. There's a later scene that pays homage to "Once Upon a Time in the West." Very nice.
The quirks of Sparrow's character are often amplified to ridiculousness, yet still stays absolutely true to the character. Depp deserves another Oscar nomination for his performance here, which in the trilogy as a whole has to go down as one of the finest comedic roles ever undertaken.
The cinematography, production design, music, story continuity, and huge cast of characters who all work perfectly in concert with one another to create an engrossing escapade. That, and the pacing is excellent...this is a long movie but is so jam packed with forward-moving story and spectacle that you dread having to dip out to visit the men's room and even wish many of the story lines were continued a little further. Hopefully the DVD will have some deleted scenes of interest.
I enjoyed this movie more than Spider-Man-3, while also offering a far grander scale of wonder and adventure To be fair, Spider-Man basically stayed on Manhattan island for the whole three hours, which is nice and all, I've just seen new york before. I know it exists. I haven't seen the (geographic) end of the world, or have any idea what "Davy Jone's Locker" looks like...now I know. This movie has a lot of creativity, and isn't afraid to do a lot of weird, almost art-house-y stuff.
I also enjoyed all of the new characters and the development of the familiar ones - too many to mention - especially Chow's character. This is a dedicated actor who you can tell just by watching him that he is having a gas, while simultaneously totally believing he's a pirate lord (well, not totally, but well enough.) And then there's Captain Teague...well, he must be seen - not described. Please, don't listen to the critics who panned it or the people who were too lazy to follow the plot or connect the dots. This is what summer entertainment is all about.