Decent, yet somewhat disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 2007)

Upon leaving the theater after seeing "At World's End," (AWE) I was left with that "kinda-sorta-okay" impression. The first two films in this series are truly excellent, and that is one of the various reasons I was so disappointed. I expected to be wowed and pulled into a fast-paced world of action as I was when viewing "Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Dead Man's Chest," but I was bored.
Before ever seeing AWE, I had heard there was too little action; not enough sword fights, exciting battles with strange creatures of the sea, etc. I had always thought of myself as one who disliked action in movies, and I just thought of it as filler. However, this series absolutely needs action and those famous sword battles on top of moving objects (like the giant wheel shown in the second film) that we have all come to know and love. Without that needed action, the film unfortunately became dull. And the numerous sappy plots of the film, such as Will's (Orlando Bloom) ordeal with his father as well as Elizabeth's (Keira Knightley) situation with her father, were just not enough to keep the viewer entertained.
And that brings me to my next point---all this boring talk about fathers. Nearly every other word out of both Bloom and Knightley's mouth was "father." To speak the truth, the movie was mainly about the character of Will Turner talking about his father, and Elizabeth Swann crying over hers.
I have never been a Johnny Depp fan until seeing the first film in this series. Depp brings character, humor, and entertainment to the screen. A lot of critics are saying this and I must agree---there was not enough Johnny Depp. He made the first two movies such wonderful films, and with the third missing his presence in too much of the picture, it failed. Depp has a tendency in really any movie to spice things up. I looked forward to seeing Depp because I've noticed he makes otherwise boring scenes just fantastically entertaining. The movie missed a lot due to his lack of appearances.
There were also a number of confusing scenes that left many questions unanswered. Instead of focusing on the film, I was stuck trying to determine whether "it was real or just a dream." These weirdly baffling scenes distract the viewer from any real significance they actually had. For instance, the first scene involving Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) was incredibly strange, although I think the writers were going for more of a "creative" feel. It is wildly weird, and never explained. Perhaps if there was some sort of explanation, the importance of the scene would have been shown.
Even after all the flaws AWE had, I did enjoy some aspects of the film. As always, composer Hans Zimmer brings a wonderful set of songs into the movie, including the easily recognizable "He's a Pirate," the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme song.
The appearance of Keith Richards as Jack Sparrow's father was quite interesting also. Richards had supposedly been asked to appear in the series for quite some time, and I am glad he took a part, in my opinion, the perfect part. I would have liked to see more of Richards though, because his part was rather small.
The special effects were, as usual, great. With the potential for much more action that was never capitalized on, there could have been plenty more special effects though. But, what was included in the film was substantial.
In conclusion, I guess I would say "At World's End" could have been much better, but we have to deal with what we are given.