A superb movie, but a disappointment at the same time.

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2007)

I've seen this movie a couple of weeks ago. The reason why I haven't written a comment on it until now, is because I wanted to give it some time and think about it. I had mixed feelings after seeing the movie, and now I've had enough time to take some conclusions and to write a proper review.
First of all I want to say that overall, At World's End is a highly entertaining movie. There's a lot of action, humor and some big surprises. The Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy is without a doubt one of the best trilogies ever made, and in my opinion, it's more interesting and fascinating than the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, for instance. The Curse Of The Black Pearl is the best of the three. Then there's Dead Man's Chest, which comes very close to the first movie. And although they wanted to make it bigger and better, At World's End is the least of the three. It's bigger, but not better. And that's because of 3 important flaws.
In my opinion, the biggest and most important flaw of all is that the role of Jack Sparrow in At World's End has gotten smaller. We don't get to see him as often as in the previous 2 movies, and when we do, we don't always see the same Sparrow as before. Of course it's normal that we don't see him in the beginning of the movie, because they had to sail to Davy Jones' locker first, where witty Jack was captured. In fact, that part (from the beginning of the movie to the moment they arrive at the locker) is my favorite part of the movie, and it was absolutely brilliant. Barbossa's return is very impressively filmed, and the way he and the rest of the crew of the Black Pearl have to get the secret charts and sail to the locker blew me away. Very impressive film-making. And although I had my doubts when I heard he was cast, Chow Yun-Fat did a very good job playing captain Sao Feng. I was pleasantly surprised. Anyway, the point is that Jack doesn't have the lead anymore, and it's actually more about Elizabeth. It's her who is chosen as the Pirate King, and it's her who has to persuade the others into fighting Davy Jones and Lord Beckett at the end. Of course Johnny Depp plays his role as brilliantly as always, but when we get to see Jack, he isn't presented as the 'mean', charming and leading pirate anymore. Although sometimes, particularly at the end of the movie, when the final battle took place, we saw him fighting, shooting and swinging again, and then I saw the Jack from the first 2 movies. But it's not the same, not by a long shot.
Maybe the filmmakers had to choose between a series of characters and figures, or maybe it might have been more difficult to shoot, but I think the death of the Kraken was a bad idea. I was looking forward to see the Kraken again after Dead Man's Chest, because I thought it was very impressive, but I was disappointed when Beckett said Davy Jones had to kill his pet. I'm sure the writers could have found a way to bring the Kraken back into the third film, but maybe it was too difficult to film. Although I'm sure there could have been a lot of incredible and spectacular fights if the Kraken was still alive. Image it was, and Davy Jones called it at the final battle, with the whirlpool and everything Wow!
And finally, the third biggest flaw is that too many stories had to be told, which makes the movie a little too complicated than it should be. But this is not a big deal actually. Personally I had no trouble understanding everything, but I can imagine some people had.
So all in all, At World's End is an unforgettable movie from the beginning to the end. But if you compare it to the previous 2, it's the least of the three. I enjoyed watching this film and I'm happy I did. I just hope, if there is going to be a fourth movie, although it's definitely not necessary, Jack will have the lead again.