Jack Sparrow meets "Mary Potter" in uninspiring sequel

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2007)

I should have guessed something was wrong when I showed up at my neighborhood Garland Theatre and there were only a handful of patrons to watch this latest PIRATES flick. Of course, it was 9:45 pm, on a school night and this was the last day of its 3-week run at the Garland. But when such a paltry crowd shows up, it makes for a bad omen of things to come. Unfortunately, my fears were realized. This is not to say that this latest epic is a bad picture. It's just not up to the standards of the first two, although many of my fellow commentators rate the third PIRATES ahead of the second. For one thing, the whole story in this series has taken a decidedly darker turn from the first film, which was suitable for younger children without being dumbed down for their elders. The sequel, with its Kraken and bloodthirsty squid crew, was not at all suitable for younger folks, and the most recent work has a much darker tone, with very little of the warmth and humor that the characters brought to life in CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, and to a lesser extent, DEAD MEN'S CHEST. AT WORLD'S END manages to bring in some intriguing characters, but never really develops them. The Oriental captain, played by Chow Yun-Fat, never gets to do much and his back story with Jack Sparrow should have been filled in with some flashbacks. The same can be said for Jack's father. After so much hype about Keith Richards coming aboard the PIRATES franchise, he has few lines and little contact with Jack. On the other hand, the witch plays what I call a "Mary Potter" character, who's there to bring Jack back from the dead, but performs no magic, and instead wanders around mumbling mostly unintelligible dialogue. Her character and the evil Lord Beckett and his henchmen, which later includes the disgraced commodore, serve to bog the narrative down, and their villainy lacks the spirit that Barbossa and Davy Jones gave the first two films. All in all, my main gripes here are that this sequel is much too long, leans too much to the dark side, and it fails to develop some of its more interesting new characters, although I really liked the scenes with the one-eyed pirate and his bald buddy, not to mention the funny bits with the monkey and parrot. Will Turner also gets short shrift in the plot, but the actors playing Elizabeth, Jack, Barbossa and Davy Jones make up for the deficit with outstanding performances. And the visuals, action and rousing score make this a worthy film to see and to own. It's just not up to par with the first two in the series, and if the Disney people can't do any better than this, it's time for the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN to walk the plank when it comes to further sequels. Dale Roloff