"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"  If Only That Were True

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2007)

The third installment of the "Pirates" saga kicked off and I got to screen it a day early. I really enjoyed the first entry and thought the second one was over-budgeted and ended up taking the series in a direction that I didn't like. "At World's End" wouldn't be much different. It ironically turned out to be similar in structure to the third "Spider-Man" movie which opened up only a couple weeks earlier being that it was a little too long, had corny love scenes, and was extremely confusing to a majority of the viewers. However I think that "Spider-Man 3" was the better film as this one exceeded to excess on all those factors. While there was action aplenty and even scenes I liked, when I left the theater I harbored an empty feeling.
It was evident that while the action was there, a really satisfying concrete story wasn't. For example a new type of all-powerful character was introduced and built up for the first two-thirds of the movie, but when they finally do come to fruition it's an extreme letdown. In fact many new elements were introduced that weren't fully explained that just left me wondering why they even needed to throw these in the script in the first place. It was if they were more concerned about creating a long running time than an understandable story.
The swashbuckling was decent and there were many fights, however not as many important ones as there were in the first twowhere it had more one-on-one duels. Here there were many every person for themselves free for all's. Another problem was the blur of succeeding betrayals. This made it hard to distinguish who was who. I like knowing whom to root for, or at least thinking I know who to root for. The special effects were amazing and the actual production itself was pretty flawless but it was a clear case of all style and no substance. Well maybe not no substance, but very little.
Johnny Depp while having some funny moments didn't build on his character whatsoever and didn't even have the most comical parts this time around. They seemed to have gone to the parrot and the monkey. At least half of Sparrow's humor fell flat, as they were just rehashed jokes and retorts that I heard back in elementary school. Orlando Bloom's acting was safely bad as usual in his case. Keira Knightley was okay, but she's more there as a pretty face than a legitimate thespian. The supporting cast was exceptional though just as they had been in the first two movies, and luckily for the ticket buyer they had a lot of screen time. So between the good and the bad here it about evened out.
At least all the open-ended conflicts were resolved at the end and there weren't anymore real cliffhangers. However it's appearing pretty favorable that there's going to be another trilogy on top of this which I'm not looking forward to as the series quality has declined steadily with each film. It's basically one big money making scheme now by just throwing a bunch of special effects on the screen along with a few cute people and have the young masses come teeming in spending their parents not so hard-earned dough. This is why I wish they just ended everything here while there was still a shred of dignity left, but Hollywood can't seem to let anything be if there's a shred of money to be made lately.
Even though this was a long movie it actually goes by somewhat quickly which was especially surprisingly given how slow moving some of the scenes are and the fact that a lot of inane dialog is thrown into the mix. It actually is worth watching and is probably even above average but falls far short of what it could've been. I also predict that this will break box office records without a doubt, as a film doesn't have to be good to achieve that anymore. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" was decent but didn't live up to the anticipation that was generated and if these epics are continued to be made like this I'll certainly be at wit's end!