Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Captain Jack is back in the sequel ‘At World’s End’. It’s not really as much a sequel to last year’s ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ as a continuation, and a fine continuation it is. Now, cliffhanger second films have generally sported worthy continuations, like Back to the Future 3 and The Matrix 3. And Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is better than those two films I just mentioned, and although it barely falls short of the first Pirates, it improves on the second film ten-fold. (And I liked that one.)

When my expectations fell short for Spidey 3 and Shrek 3 was really good but not excellent, all eyes turned on this. Sure, the second one got decidedly mixed reviews, but the cliffhanger ending (while being a cheap trick) left people wanting more Pirates. Well, here they get it. Almost everything is wrapped up nicely (the unanswered questions weren’t big enough to warrant an explanation), but one major character’s outcome really, really bothered me.

You might want to walk into the theater armed with three things:

1) A chart to decipher what’s going on.
2) A checklist to check off which characters are dead or faking it. You’ll check off a lot of people.
3) Kleenex.

The film’s a healthy 2 hours 50 minutes long, with about as many subplots and contrivances as, say, Babel and Spider-Man 3 combined. But who cares? This is an summer blockbuster! Cut it slack, not least of which cause of the billions of bucks it makes.

We start immediately where the second film left off, where the once-bad guy Captain Barbossa comes back from the dead to help Will, Elizabeth and company rescue Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones’ locker. They go to pirate lord Sao Feng for help, and are rudely interrupted in their conversation by only, say, the entire British navy in a huge attack.

In a primary subplot would-be weds Will Turner and Elizabeth are ticked at each other for various reasons – the primary one being Will mistook Elizabeth for kissing Jack. So when Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa and company finally rescue Jack from Davy Jones’ locker (or, World’s End), Jack is delusional to the point of talking to himself and imagining several other Jacks around him – resulting in a rather dull, prolonged sequence.

Freaky, tentacle-lauded sea lord Davy Jones is REALLY mad at Jack, especially after Jack succeeded in taking stealing his much-treasured Dead Man’s Chest (which winds up in the hands of the British army, in other words Lord Becket), evading and killing his “pet” sea-monster The Kraken, and being associated with all Davy’s enemies – and his ex-flame. So when he hears of Jack being rescued from, er, Jones’ locker, he combines his gruesome army of sea-monsters with the vast British forces, and voila, you got one dang big army.

With the wily Captain Jack Sparrow, the brave Will Turner, the newly-elected-pirate-king Elizabeth Turner, and lots and lots of eccentric pirates from all over the world join to fight the greatest army ever forged. But with Elizabeth’s father dead, Will’s father a rotting monster-guy on Davy Jones’ ship, and Jack’s dad one of the nine pirate lords, there’s lots of extra motivations and betrayals thrown into the mix…

And the last hour has the most mind-blowing action ever since the last ½ hour of Terminator 2, and that was 1991. The entire scene probably cost a good $100 million – out of the reported $300 million cost of the film. The battle between good pirates, bad pirates, monsters, and the entire British army is incredible and easily gets this film the high rating I give it. Now, mind you, some scenes lacked satisfying conclusion and others complete purpose – but the superb acting, action, and production design will blow the minds of many.

As it did mine. A-