Exhilarating in the key of excess

Rating: Null/10 (25 June 2007)

Early in Pirates part 3, there's a breathtaking moment of visual genius. To escape Davy Jones' locker, the crew must turn the Black Pearl upside before dusk (where's the Poseidon Adventure tidal wave when you need it?) Jack Sparrow leads the crew back and forth from side to side, rocking the ship  Barbossa orders the cargo and cannons cut so they'll roll around in the lower decks adding momentum. Back and forth the ship rocks until finally it turns over, flipping completely upside down with masts and sails miraculously intact. Dusk comes, and voilà! Freedom!
The sequence is absurd on so many levels that it's futile to begin discrediting it; however, Pirates 3 embraces this silliness with such energy, and such enthusiasm, that I cheered when the ceiling of water came crashing down, and the Black Pearl triumphantly emerged from the depths of the sea into the real world again. Screw realism. This is why I come to the movies  to see visually spectacular events that cannot possibly happen, actually happening. I repeat, "screw realism." Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End fully embraces what it is  a movie inspired by a Disney World ride.
As much as I would love to write so enthusiastically of the later sequences  the epic mid-sword fight marriage ceremony, for instance, which was conceived and choreographed with a spirit of gleeful excitement that threw believability to the wind (critics be damned). Quite frankly, by that point my suspension of disbelief felt like it ran two consecutive marathons, and wanted to take a nap before continuing.
There's excess. There's overkill. There's excessive overkill. And then there's At World's End.
The aforementioned marriage-sword fight takes place after releasing the Goddess Calypso, which turns into a giant wave of crabs, which unleashes a violent maelstrom, which entwines the Black Pearl and Dutchman into a canon battle, pirates swing from one ship to another to engage in mêlée, and somewhere around here Jack does a perpetual Tarzan rope swing while battling Davy Jones and whoever else happens to be caught in a perpetual swing  don't even get me started on the plot and character motivations of who betrayed who, when, where, and why.
It's not that the plot and character motivations are particularly hard to follow, rather it's just mildly annoying when a new deception and/or revelation emerges every time someone opens their mouth. And, actually, Pirates 3 has a great scene that accurately describes itself  Jack shows up to steal the heart of Davy Jones, and discovers two sailors with canons guarding it. Instead of blasting Sparrow, they proceed to get into a bickering contest with each other while Jack observes their fruitless discussion for a moment before he takes what he came for and waltzes off with it. I wish I could pick up the heart of this playful movie and tiptoe away with it while it continues to bicker about the 3 billionth broken alliance.
As the running time counted on, the excess slowly drained the power, the spectacle, the comedy, and the fun to the point that I can imagine myself enjoying Pirates 3 as one of those weekly serials where a small chunk is presented isolated from the rest of the movie. I can imagine myself enjoying each of those independent sections on their own, presented at their own leisurely pace, more so than the combined compressed whole where everything comes rushing like an out of control train. When Davy Jones stabs Will through the heart, I should gasp in horror, not mutter under my breath, "welcome to the club, kid."
Of course, Depp, Rush, and Nighy return to their iconic roles, and with great delight I watched Barbossa and Sparrow square off for control of the Black Pearl, the actors clearly having a blast with their characters. And Nighy proving once again he can emote with amazing control and range through pounds of makeup, from a tender scene with his beloved to an over the top conquest of claiming another soul from the sea.
In the end, I can't really point to any one element or sequence and genuinely say, "I did not like that" (okay, maybe the bloated plot.) Pirates 3 is littered with lots of great moments, lots of great ideas, and lots of bad ass visuals realized. There is a childlike wonder to Pirates 3 as though Gore Verbinski unleashed his whole crew into a candy store and said, "Go play. It's on me." Which, needless to say, is not an easy feat on such a large production, and deserves due credit.
I think part of my problem is that around the 45 minute mark I started seriously studying the film in search of a kitchen sink  surely that's buried in an effects shot somewhere.