A Roller-coaster Drop in Quality - PotC: At World's End

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2007)

(This does contain spoilers)
Members of the audience have been battling over whether or not there were plot holes in this third installment of the Pirates' franchise. I suspect the title of this review will let people know where I stand. Pirates, which I have loved since I first set foot on the ride as a little girl over ten years ago, has always been filled with exciting possibilities. It is not hard to believe then that I would have so easily fallen for Curse of the Black Pearl with its smarmy dialogue, rum jokes, and of course the fantastic way in which scenes from the ride were incorporated into the movie.
At World's End, however, was incredibly disappointing. I am amazed that this film was made back to back with Dead Man's Chest, because the quality is completely different. I will say that - fair enough - the second film was not as witty as the first, but the time it took to the release the film much shorter than the first. Nevertheless, Dead Man's Chest was still fun. I walked out of the theatre feeling excited for this next installment.
At World's End introduces characters played by wonderful actors, only to waste their talent and toss them aside in the storyline like dried apple cores. The death of Davy Jones is surprisingly quick and anti-climatic, and his heartache or love story is never resolved. Calypso is introduced only to turn into an avalanche of crabs. Norrington, who was seemingly minor in the first film and a turning point in the second as he delivered the heart to the villain, is stabbed quickly on deck by the suddenly disoriented Bootstrap Bill Turner. Why is Bootstrap suffering from some sort of Alzheimer's? This is never explained, the viewer is to simply accept that becoming a part of the ship causes one's memory to dwindle, even though it is clearly not the case in Pirates 2 with the clearly cognizant ship member who has become a part of the ship and reveals the presence of the key on the Dutchman.
I also must ask the purpose of twisting the love story so that both the main characters are wholly miserable and separated. Disney in the past has gone through painstaking measures to warp classic fairy tales and give audiences a happy ending. Was the breaking apart of this epic love story a way of saying 'Up yours!'? It's true that it was unexpected, and while unexpected may sometimes be fresh, it is not always good.
Overall, I feel that the movie rushed through many aspects which could have been more interesting - the terrible beastie, the Kraken, is suddenly removed though it was a huge force in the second film, Jack's obsession with his own boat is absent as well. Instead it focused too much on over-dramatic and fairly boring scenes: the splintering of the ship before the death of the villain, and the acid trip that led to the direction of Jack's time spent in Davy Jones' Locker. Jack's illusions weren't funny; they were at best irritating.
This film seemed self-indulgent on the part of the actors, producers and directors: too many special effects used in all the wrong areas, a rushed plot and boring dialogue, and a waste of amazing talent. Thankfully, the action scenes are entertaining enough to make any Pirates fan feel as though they can own the movie, but it really did feel quite degrading to those lovable characters developed in the first two movies.