Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

by Josh Marks, May 23, 2007

The third installment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise is one sprawling mess of a movie. With a running time of almost three hours, “At World’s End” will test the patience of audiences. Although the impressive final swashbuckling battle rewards those who sit through this bloated film.

The recurring characters are all onboard for this voyage – Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). Fresh faces include Chow Yun-Fat as Captain Sao Feng and Keith Richards as Captain Teague. All do an admirable job in their designated roles. The star of course is Depp and he again doesn’t disappoint as the quirky and slightly effeminate Sparrow.

While most people on the planet have seen the first two films, those that haven’t will find themselves scrambling to figure out who is who and what is going on. This not a stand-alone movie and “The Curse of the Black Pearl” and “Dead Man’s Chest” are required viewing to fully appreciate the context of the plot.

“At World’s End” starts out in Singapore where following a couple of surprise attacks from the different factions, the motley crew embarks on a journey to rescue Sparrow from Davy Jones’ Locker. Meanwhile the East India Trading Company and Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) have taken control of the Flying Dutchman and Captain Davy Jones and recruited the ghost ship to bring about their nefarious plans to wipe out all pirates for good. This sets up the decisive showdown with the badly outnumbered Pirate Lords gathered from across the globe.

Visual effects are impressive, particularly the CGI creatures in Davy Jones’ crew. The look of Singapore and other settings are meticulously rendered. Composer Hans Zimmer’s music provides a haunting and relentless score as the story unspools.

This critic-proof film is a throwback to the classic Hollywood epics of yore but without the essence that made these classics great. This is a franchise that is based on a Disney theme park ride and never strays too far from its roots. Still, the movie is action-packed, especially the colossal final battle, and moves at a brisk pace despite its too-long running time. Overall however it is an overstuffed film that should have lost an hour and found more of a focus rather than being scattered all over the treasure map.