Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
(C or 2/4 stars)
Elizabeth, Will, & Capt. Barbossa (Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush) must face their loathsome enemies, Davey Jones & Lord Beckett (Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander) in 'At World's End', a Disney actioner directed, again, by Gore Verbinski. Beckett owns Jones' beating heart (meaning he has control over him ... obviously); & he summons the East India Trading Co. to form an alliance that will fight to rule the 7 seas and end piracy for good. But we wouldn't want that to happen, would we? That would mean ther'd be an end to this interminable franchise. Go Jones & Beckett!
Our heroes travel to Singapore (naturally) to call upon the 9 pirate lords from the 4 corners of the globe, including an unintelligible Chow-Yun Fat as Sao Feng. Although these pirate lords do little more than looking ticked-off, they will aid our protagonists on The Black Pearl as they hope to track down their enemies on The Flying Dutchman. But first, they need to recover Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Davey Jones' locker. With Sparrow's 'savvy' help, they can conquer their foes. Every person on The Black Pearl is out for something. Who can be trusted? You find out during this 165 min. saga.
5 minutes in, I knew it would be an uphill battle for me. The movie looks amazing! But I knew we'd have to wade through about 90 min. of confusing narrative before we got to the crux of things. The beginning is slow as we're re-introduced to everybody who we've already known for years. Apparently, this is Elizabeth Swann's show this time around; how exciting. After the Singapore segment, & after they inevitably rescue Jack, the convoluted story goes even more haywire. Heck, even Depp's pirate shtick has gone stale. And the fact that he's seeing multiples of himself in one weird scene doesn't help matters much. Main characters are double crossed, there are betrayals, & this all before the last climactic hour begins.
Portions of the last hour are exhilarating, but just as many are absurdly overblown. i.e., in the 1st film, there's an exciting, innovative swashbuckling scene btwn. Will & Jack in a sword shop. In this film, 2 characters defy gravity & swashbuckle on a narrow mast on top of a ship in the middle of the most ferocious storm you've ever seen and the ship is spinning & descending through a bottomless, oceanic whirlpool; utterly ridiculous. GONE is the fun, invigorating simplicity of the first film.
There are fantastic shots of ships sailing through glaciers & other vast seascapes. Some of the action is great, but it's like the writers decided to punish our beloved characters by adding a myriad of goofy storylines around a wonderful CGI canvas. Another thing, as each film in this franchise comes along, the more risque it gets … not sure I'd want my 10 yr. old brother to see some things here. And he's been a fan of the Pirate flicks for yrs. How I long for the days of the 1st film that expanded from & played simply to the attraction ride. I don't know, maybe I'm just not thinking progressively here.
Weak. This film has a weak center with an exoskeleton of eye-popping visuals. The special effects (including Davey Jones' tentacles) are really cool. But the costumes & set designs impress me the most. Jack, the monkey, is adorable as ever. It's nice to see Johnny Depp in this role again. He has his usual moments; but just like Spiderman & Shrek, I'm done now. "Yo ho, yo hope this ends at trilogyyy".
Our heroes travel to Singapore (naturally) to call upon the 9 pirate lords from the 4 corners of the globe, including an unintelligible Chow-Yun Fat as Sao Feng. Although these pirate lords do little more than looking ticked-off, they will aid our protagonists on The Black Pearl as they hope to track down their enemies on The Flying Dutchman. But first, they need to recover Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Davey Jones' locker. With Sparrow's 'savvy' help, they can conquer their foes. Every person on The Black Pearl is out for something. Who can be trusted? You find out during this 165 min. saga.
5 minutes in, I knew it would be an uphill battle for me. The movie looks amazing! But I knew we'd have to wade through about 90 min. of confusing narrative before we got to the crux of things. The beginning is slow as we're re-introduced to everybody who we've already known for years. Apparently, this is Elizabeth Swann's show this time around; how exciting. After the Singapore segment, & after they inevitably rescue Jack, the convoluted story goes even more haywire. Heck, even Depp's pirate shtick has gone stale. And the fact that he's seeing multiples of himself in one weird scene doesn't help matters much. Main characters are double crossed, there are betrayals, & this all before the last climactic hour begins.
Portions of the last hour are exhilarating, but just as many are absurdly overblown. i.e., in the 1st film, there's an exciting, innovative swashbuckling scene btwn. Will & Jack in a sword shop. In this film, 2 characters defy gravity & swashbuckle on a narrow mast on top of a ship in the middle of the most ferocious storm you've ever seen and the ship is spinning & descending through a bottomless, oceanic whirlpool; utterly ridiculous. GONE is the fun, invigorating simplicity of the first film.
There are fantastic shots of ships sailing through glaciers & other vast seascapes. Some of the action is great, but it's like the writers decided to punish our beloved characters by adding a myriad of goofy storylines around a wonderful CGI canvas. Another thing, as each film in this franchise comes along, the more risque it gets … not sure I'd want my 10 yr. old brother to see some things here. And he's been a fan of the Pirate flicks for yrs. How I long for the days of the 1st film that expanded from & played simply to the attraction ride. I don't know, maybe I'm just not thinking progressively here.
Weak. This film has a weak center with an exoskeleton of eye-popping visuals. The special effects (including Davey Jones' tentacles) are really cool. But the costumes & set designs impress me the most. Jack, the monkey, is adorable as ever. It's nice to see Johnny Depp in this role again. He has his usual moments; but just like Spiderman & Shrek, I'm done now. "Yo ho, yo hope this ends at trilogyyy".