World's still the same, there's just less in it

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2007)

The last thirty minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 feature plenty of swashbuckling adventure and a few brave surprises. Sadly, what precedes them isn't always as thrilling.
Will (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and ex-villain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) attempt to locate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), while Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) controls the Flying Dutchman's captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his monstrous crew.
Within the first two hours there are droll moments, but also a terrifying amount of bloat: lots of scenes should not have made it past the editing room. See, for example, the hallucination with the multiple Jacks, an interminable piece of slapstick which goes on and on. The whole movie needed a good trimming; director Verbinski has many qualities, but brevity isn't one of them.
Knightley is a firecracker as usual; Bloom is still a bland actor, but his Will has grown into a darker, more interesting character. The great Bill Nighy brings pathos and a delighted wickedness to the role of Davy Jones. Depp and Rush have fun hamming it up.
The Black Pearl is still the best of the trilogy by a (nautical) mile, but this final chapter surpasses the second (which was a bloated mess) and offers enough exciting set-pieces to make it watchable.
6/10