Action and special effects win over plot

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2009)

Pirates of the Caribbean has be a very successful franchise, making Disney millions from the films, computer games, the theme park ride and other related projects. After the success of Curse of the Black Pearl Disney were quick to commission 2 sequels to be shot back-to-back, similar to what happened with the Matrix, and like to the Matrix and many of films from the summer of threequels, the third instalment fails.
At World's End starts Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) has taken control of the Caribbean, suspended the rights of the people and killed on mass people who were linked to piracy, including children in a dark opening scene. Lord Beckett had control of Davy Jones'(Bill Nighy) heart and thereby had control of the Flying Dutchman. Beckett uses Jones to hunt down as many pirates as their can. Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), Will (Orlando Bloom) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) seek assistance from Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), a Chinese Pirate from Singapore. They need him because they need to free Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the Davy Jones' locker, seeing he died in the last film. Barbossa is also calling the Brethren Court of pirates, which include himself, Sao Feng and Jack Sparrow and have to discuss their last stand against the East India Company. The adventure takes out heroes to the Artic, the Caribbean, Singapore (despite the fact Singapore was no more then a fishing village until the British took over in 1819) and Davy Jones' Locker which is basically land of the dead. And seeing that they are all pirates everyone double crosses everyone else, with Will making deals with the East India Company, the East India Company makes deal with Sao Fung and Jack, etc... Subplots are also involved with this film, with Davy Jones' and Calypso's (Naomie Harris) love and heartbreak for each other, Jones' and Beckett's rivalry, Will need to marry Elizabeth and save his father and Jack wanting to kill Davy Jones so he could take over the Flying Dutchman.
The plot is incompehenable, over-cooked and over-long. It makes no real scene and the whole point of a film like this is it should be fairly simple and just be fun. There is too much fat to the story that isn't needed.Pirates of the Caribbean is meant to be family film but with a running time of needly 3 hours, it is way too long. When I went to the cinema to see it their was even an intermission which hasn't happened since the days of great epics like Ben-Hur, Spactacus, Lawerence of Arabia and Barry Lyndon. With films the first and most important thing is a strong screenplay, a strong story. Without that it doesn't matter if the best director and best actors are involved. When At World's End started without a finished script which is a warning sign. Even if a film had re-writes whilst it was filming, the basics of the story should be there. The film was a mess. The film also has some dark scenes, like the hanging scene and a violence death. I have nothing against dark theme in films but it needs to be done right. First most of the film is too light-hearted and suffers from the same problem that I had with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves which was the filmmakers didn't know which way to go. Secondly is Pirates is meant to be family film and needs to do dark themes just right. Dead Man's Chest was criticised for being racist towards native tribes in the Caribbean. However, I thought the film was very racist towards Chinese and Indians, especially the Chinese, with male characters looking like drawings from the late 19th Century of the 'yellow peril'. There had horrible teeth, tattoos, thin goatees and long claw like nails. The film had to be cut by ten minutes in China because of this and personally I don't blame them. The Indian pirates were also portrayed in a stereotypical way, but their role was minor.
At World's End also makes out that pirates were really freedom and even in a way pseudo-Marxists, fighting for their freedom against the evil multi-national of the East India Company. This from Disney which is a massive multi-national with business interests in films, TV, toys, theme parks and so many other things and Jerry Bruikheimer who is a Republican supporter.
Now to the acting. Johnny Depp was good, he enjoys the role of Jack Sparrow and allows him to let his hair down. Geoffrey Rush was over-acting and he seem to be enjoying himself and I don't blame him. Chow Yun-Fat obviously did the film for the paid-cheque and the chance to be in a Hollywood film, not because he thought the material was good. He was not in the film for very long anyway. Naomie Harris offered a weird performance but at its good to see her trying to break into Hollywood. Bill Nighy was very good and is the best performance in the film. I personally thought that Tom Hollander lacked the menace to be the villain and Bill Nighy should have retaited the role within the film. Finally Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom were too wooden and unbelievable. Keira becomes the leader of the pirates but would you honestly believe that with her Braveheart style speech. But at least Keira is easy on the eye.
The Special Effects and action are well done, the computer graphics people will not struggle to find work and action is Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer do best. That part of the film was entertaining, especially the final battle scene.
The music by Hans Zimmer was brilliant and his score is a trademark of the film. Zimmer is one of the best music men in the business.
This film isn't worth knocking yourself out for. A fourth film is one the way and Gore Verbinski has announced that he wouldn't be directing, so I would except too much.