A Comparative Look at the Pirates Series - Part 3: At World's End

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2016)

As we arrive into the third film in the series, things have taken a much stranger turn. Ever more so than the final movie. It is certainly a dispatch from the previous films, where the theme becomes slightly abstract, and plot devices tend to muddle the overall story. The world is changing, and in it, there is no more room for piracy. Under rule of the King of England, the Caribbean islands have begun executing all known pirates, associates of pirates, and even surprisingly... the children of pirates. We enter the film at the gallows and witness hanging after hanging in a strongly dark montage of death. This certainly sets the tone for the remainder of the film. William, Elizabeth align themselves with Captain Hector Barbossa on a mission to find Jack who was 'lost at sea'. It's unknown how much time has passed since we last saw him, but it could be inferred that it is not too long after his meeting with the Kraken (a giant sea squid under the control of Davy Jones). Everyone has lost some part of their hopes, or has betrayed each other at this point and even Davy Jones is under the control of the East India Trading Company.
This is perhaps the only movie where I really criticize the direction in the whole pirates film series. It is such a departure from the previous film, that perhaps it's even stranger than the following movie 'On Stranger Tides'. I thought that although there has always been a sense of the mystic in the Pirates movies, this one get's really abstract and convoluted. I understand that perhaps Gore Verbinsky, was trying to wrap up the original trilogy in this entry, but the writing and characterization really gets lost along the way. Johnny Depp changed the most, not physically mind you, but he really portrays Jack as an insane man. I'm not entirely sure why he's so nuts in this one, I but I think it takes away from the charm that is Captain Jack Sparrow. Other characters have become somewhat dulled, especially Orlando Bloom ask Will. He doesn't seem that interested in what's going on around him, even as he interacts with different people throughout the film, he and Keira Knightly seemed a little lackluster. Bill Nighy remains my favourite character in the series, and really excels as a somewhat deterred yet still delightfully aggressive Davy Jones.
The real shame is the plot, as there are a couple of really big plot holes, especially when it comes to the use of Calypso. I thought that there was a reason she was there in the final battle, and that the pirates had a trump card up their sleeve, but she really didn't serve much of a purpose. In the end she was almost a non-event. If she was always this powerful, why didn't they just use her from the start? Perhaps that simpler idea is what they wanted to avoid, to push the plot along for almost 3 hours, which makes this movie the longest entry in the series.
Overall it's not a bad ending to the original trilogy of films, but definitely the most perplexing and complicated of the series.
6/10