A (Disconnected) Heart, A (Missing) Brain, and a Little Dog, Too

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2007)

"At World's End" opens with the stark image of a noose hanging limply, unoccupied, in a sunny breeze. At first this seemed a highly inappropriate image to impose on the viewers of this third (and possibly final) "Pirates" film. However, upon further thought, it seems Gore Verbinski, the helmer of all three films, has brought into the spotlight a theme shrouded in the background of the previous two films: hanging, gallows, and general death. In the first film, Jack Sparrow paddles by an area near the port, where a small clan of pirates (they are now skeletons) are hung, with a sign across all of them: PIRATES, YE BE WARNED. And since that, there have been encounters, and near interaction with the gallows and the nooses, but none have proved fatal just yet. In showing us the stark image of a noose, Mr. Verbinski also mentally prepares us for a heady film, full of swords, brine, and a surprising amount of pathos.
At the end of "Dead Man's Chest", Jack Sparrow dives into the awaiting mouth of the Kraken, sacrificing himself for his fellow pirates. We then learn that it is the mission and determination of Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan and the apparently-undead Captain Barbosa, to rescue Jack, and in doing so, the world. This is a brilliant set up for the next film, but it is not used in "At World's End" as well as it could have been. And the film's producers are not trying to convince you otherwise; in trailers for the film Jack Sparrow is heavily featured. This is understandable, as he is rescued (by his cohorts and by himself) within the first hour of the film, of which there are nearly three. From then on, it is the mission of Jack and his crew to find Davy Jones (the always-awesome Bill Nighy) and set his record straight with the man; however, it is Will's determination to free his father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) from Davy Jones' locker. Those are the two main plot lines, and they are constantly intertwined with the other more diminutive ones, like those involving the elusive East India Trading Company.
As was proved in the first two films, Mr. Verbinski has an adept hand with CGI effects; his combination of live-action photography and computer animation is seamless, to say the least. I mean, a major character's face is completely computer-rendered, and yet that character is the most emotionally readable of them all! However, Mr. Verbinski's talent is not equaled within the writing staff. Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, who co-wrote the first film with two others, and co-wrote the second picture themselves have penned this most recent script, which is long, contrived, and generally unfunny. The plot takes the first hour of the film to really kick into gear (it is supported mostly by a long action sequence in Singapore to jumpstart the film) and even when it does start to move, the film always seems tired and deflated. The "Pirates" series has evolved much like the Kraken monster: in the second film, it was smooth, intense and supremely entertaining, and the third film is a dieing pile of skin and suckers lieing on an empty beach somewhere outside of Aruba; the breathtaking visuals are still intact, but, thanks to the actors and screenwriters, there is no spirit behind them, and the film is just a gaseous treatise, exhaling its final guttural moans, giving the world a few final toots of its horn, before its penultimate extinction.