Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Big. Dumb. Fun. When the alchemy is done just right with these three ingredients, not just gold but blockbuster gold is the outcome. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End pushes the limits of each ingredient, and of course I mean “dumb” in the best possible context, but still manages to deliver everything I was looking for. I love these characters and I love watching these actors and actresses have fun while acting so ridiculous for hours at a time. Add to that just how damn good these films look and I honestly have no real complaints.

This is about to get out of hand and I am going to do nothing to stop it. This rambling review is in honor of the creators of Pirates of the Caribbean since they are unwilling to leaving anything out, running time be thrice damned, I will do the same. Let’s start with the characters because damn near all of them are worth mentioning. As it stands right now, I do not know if there is a better movie character than Captain Jack Sparrow. The amount of effort, love, and insanity that Johnny Depp has poured into each performance might as well be legendary now. This time around the true madness of Jack Sparrow is fully revealed through him not only talking to multiple versions of himself but he also has little cartoon angel and devil Jack Sparrow’s on his shoulders. The nearly endless highlights include sailing a ship through the desert powered by crabs, his initial reactions to seeing Elizabeth, the who am I? moment, every and all exchanges with Barbossa, and every and all interactions with Davy Jones. Second up is Geoffrey Rush continually unsung Captain Barbossa. His absence in Dead Man’s Chest left a void and that debt was paid with interest this time around. His cartoon character interactions with Jack raise the level for both captains. Plus all the one-liners Barbossa had while at the helm were money. Moving along to Keira Knightley and well how can I complain when they went to such lengths in the series of films to make Elizabeth Swann a dominant heroine. She started off as a just a strong-willed girl getting into trouble but ends up as the Pirate King, that is quite a journey. In At World’s End Elizabeth’s first scene ends with her knife at a pirate’s throat, then has the great scene where she keeps revealing her concealed weapons, has all the moments relating to her leaving Jack to die, toe-to-toe with Chow Yun-Fat, Pirate King, Pirate King sandbar parlay, Pirate King hoisting the colors, and even though it doesn’t need mentioning she is real nice to look at. I even have praise for Orlando Bloom’s William Turner this time around. He may have started as Jack Sparrow’s straight man, but by the end his arc has nearly been as strong as Elizabeth’s. His scene with Davy Jones and Lord Beckett was fantastic especially with him morphing into Jack Sparrow while making the deal. Let’s try to keep it short from here on. Davy Jones is both a great Bill Nighy performance and still unbelievable CGI. Lord Beckett is just the right amount of arrogance. Tia Dalma is a truly original creation. Mr. Gibbs is perfect in the role of Jack’s most trusted friend. Chow Yun-Fat was underutilized but still made Sao Feng memorable with minimal screen-time. Kudos to the rest of the comedic help even the too cute animals, well, maybe not the animals.

Now that I have spent entirely too much time yakking about the acting folk, I want to talk about the movie itself. This was a thing of beauty. Whatever amount of money they spent was worth it because every dime was on the screen. I don’t know if there has been a better looking movie; the starlight waters, the waterfall, the Black Pearl sailing in the desert, up is down, shipwreck cove, the creation of the maelstrom, the entire battle in the maelstrom, and this doesn’t even take into account all the locations introduced with a fly-by, pure eye candy. I also have to mention the mood setting first scene with everyone going to the gallows and then singing a pirate song in unison. The power of that song was then continued throughout the film with it returning over and over again in many different forms. There was even the classic summer blockbuster scene with all the main players walking across the sandbar with everyone looking like a million bucks and totally badass. And finally I love the ending because it clearly concludes the William/Elizabeth and ancillary characters story while allowing for more Jack/Barbossa nonsense if Disney wants to print more money down the road.

Although after three outings there may have not been a perfect film in the bunch, I would definitely say that each one accomplished what a summer movie is supposed to accomplish … provide me with a good time. I do feel that the series has run its course, but if 5 years from now Johnny wants to don the dreadlocks again who am I to complain? There has been little decline in quality from the first film and At World’s End was a fine conclusion to the trilogy.

8 out of 10