Rousing conclusion to the "Pirates" trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2007)

With Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) dead and the heart of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) in his hands, Lord Cutler Becket (Tom Holland) of the East India Company institutes a draconian crackdown on piracy. With the reluctant aid of Jones and his ship, "The Flying Dutchman", Becket decimates the world's pirates. Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), and the resurrected Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), along with Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris) and the usual crew (Kevin McNalty, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook), rescue Sparrow and call a meeting of the Bretheren of the Coast in order to make a last stand against Becket and the EIC. Also along for the ride are now-Admiral James Norrington (Jack Davenport), whose sense of nobility is conflicted by working for Becket, and Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), a vicious Chinese pirate king.
At first, I was apprehensive about this movie. The second film had been a complete disappointment - leaden, forced, overlong, and convoluted, creating ridiculous story lines that seemed to have little potential. On top of that, most of the critical reviews of this film I'd read were savage. So I was hoping that "At World's End" would be at least worth my 161 minutes, if nothing else.
I was not disappointed.
As with any film in the fantasy genre, "At World's End" is susceptible to logical pitfalls. In films like this, we MUST accept that characters can come back from the dead without explanation, that there are random Greek gods/goddesses who interact with fragments of nautical lore, that a pirate captain will marry two people in the middle of a vicious hand-to-hand naval battle in the middle of storm, that there are undead monkeys who are fired out of cannons. Anyone criticizing these aspects of the film is a sourpuss.
The point is: I was entertained throughout. While, like its predecessors, "At World's End" is overlong by about twenty minutes, the storyline is engrossing and so the viewer doesn't really notice the length. It manages to recapture the humor, double-crossing, and characterizations which made the first film entertaining, and were horribly lacking from "Dead Man's Chest".
The film contains many memorable set-pieces, which occasionally (well, frequently) lapse into CGI overkill. The grim opening, with the mass execution of condemned pirates, is genuinely chilling and memorable, as is the sequence where the "Pearl" encounters boats of the recently deceased entering the world of the dead. The action scenes are relatively few, with a very impressive final confrontation between the "Black Pearl" and the "Flying Dutchman" (in a maelstrom, in the middle of a thunderstorm) the high point. The art direction and costumes are gorgeous, particularly the design of Singapore.
I was surprised at how satisfactorily the various plot lines set up in the second film were resolved. While many critics have criticized the lengthy dialog scenes and seemingly never-ending betrayals, all of it actually leads to a point. The many back-stabbing moments force the characters to make a final stand and determine, once and for all, what side they stand on. There aren't any plot threads left hanging in the air, though the possibility of another sequel is left open.
There are, admittedly, some bits which don't come off too well. My biggest problem is the ending - I won't ruin it, though most people reading this review probably know it by now. But suffice it to say, it starts off as an intriguing resolution and changes into a cop-out, half-assed conclusion that neither satisfies the audience nor makes much sense. The whole Calypso bit just doesn't come off well for me at all - why not include Poseidon or Odyssesus while you're at it? And there's only so much humor you can ring out of undead monkeys, midgets, Jack's multiple personalities, and wooden eyeballs. And Will and Elizabeth's impromptu marriage - please.
The most welcome aspect of the film is Captain Jack Sparrow. In "Dead Man's Chest", his character seemed tired; he ceased being amusing, and in fact I was almost happy when he "died". But here, Johnny Depp is able to make Sparrow the wonderfully entertaining character he was at first, throwing in some nice character development - he actually has a measure of loyalty this time around, without compromising his usual roguish nature. The several scenes played with multiple Jack Sparrows were a bit tiresome, but overall Depp makes a refreshing return to form, with his usual wit, sleazy charm, and style.
The other actors are given more to do than in previous films. While Orlando Bloom continues to struggle with the concept of acting, Keira Knightley manages to make Elizabeth a much more interesting character than in previous installments. While his return from the dead is never explained, Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa is always welcome. Tom Hollander makes Becket, a cypher in "Dead Man's Chest", a truly memorable, nasty villain this time around. Likewise, Jack Davenport does an excellent job as the increasingly conflicted Norrington, while Jonathan Pryce makes more of an impression in his brief appearance than in the previous two films combined. Bill Nighy, Naomi Harris, Kevin McNalty, and "the rest" continue their usual fine work. There are some performances which don't come off - Chow Yun-Fat, for instance, has little to do and exists solely as a plot device. Stellan Skarsgard does what he can with his much-reduced role as Will's father, which isn't much. Keith Richards' cameo, for all the hype, isn't really up to much.
"At World's End" is a wonderfully entertaining conclusion to the "Pirates" trilogy, and in my opinion the best of the lot. It has many problems which a critic, a cynic, or a sourpuss would enjoy pointing out - but the rest of us can leave our brains at the door and enjoy an entertaining film. Is that so much to ask? All I have to say is: if they make a fourth one, it BETTER be good.
8/10.