A film with admittedly frustrating flaws but fun characters, good humor, and a mostly satisfactory plot and ending

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2007)

I know that this film disappointed a lot of people. I can see why it disappointed a lot of people. I don't blame them for being disappointed. But I sincerely enjoyed it.
The film has a lot of flaws, the biggest being poor character development and an overly complex plot: the flaws it shared with the second film. However, unlike DMC's bloated (although enjoyable) plot, At World's End at least has a destination.
The endless cycle of betrayals occurring between the characters makes it hard to sympathize with the characters. The different steps in the journey do not exhibit the best pacing. If there is one thing I could compliment on that others would agree with, it would be the action and special effects.
Davy Jones was by far the most realistic character. His tormented soul is revealed to the audience as the film progresses, and honestly I enjoyed his scenes the most, even with his funny accent.
While Davy Jones was realistically flawed, Jack Sparrow was the humorously insane star of the show. I thought that the hallucination aspect introduced in the film was very entertaining, although it contributed little to the plot. Kudos to Depp, who even though his performance has diminished from his debut in the first film, managed to keep the audience entertained.
Geoffrey Rush as the fearsome Captain Barbossa did an outstanding job, and behind both Depp and Nighy one of the most entertaining characters in the film.
Chow Yun-Fat as Sao Feng did a very good job, although for all the hype built up to him in trailers and material before the film, I was disappointed by his mere 20 minutes of show-time, compared to the main villains.
The East India Trading Company has proved controversial among fans, but I really enjoyed it. For me, it represented that the freedom-loving way of Pirates was threatened, and the imposing shadow of Lord Cutler Beckett cracking down on piracy everywhere drove most of the central plot to gather the Pirate Lords (Richard's performance as Captain Teague was very highly praised, even by the negative critics, with good reason).
This leads me to the last set of characters: Will and Elizabeth. The love-triangle between Will, Lizzie, and Jack is resolved in a much more satisfying way then, say, the Leia-Luke-Han triangle in Star Wars (although I enjoyed all six of the Star Wars films as well). However, Will's fate left much to be desired, and the betrayal cycle affected their characters the most, although I still sympathized with them for reasons unknown. :)
I know you think I'm being too positive compared to critics' reviews. Apart from the fact that critics are naturally more critical than the rest of the population, their main bone to pick with the film was the plot: not that it was a bad one, just that it was too complex and filled with needless distractions. And I agree, to an extent. It was very hard to follow for people who haven't seen the previous two films, and even for some who did. Of course, I see it as giving the film a re watch value. The one thing that I honestly didn't like was the Betrayal Cycle that occurred with both DMC and AWE; it was silly and often annoying. But when push-comes-to-shove, I'll buy this for five reasons:
1. It is an enjoyable film that will keep you entertained. 2. Plot problems aside, the characters are very fun 3. the humor is great 4. the plot is satisfactory although complex 3. Davy Jones
So, do what sensible Americans (and people of other nationalities, I assume) do every time: Ignore the critics, watch the movie, and have a great experience at the movies with characters that we love with action we enjoy.