Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End

RATING: C+

Well, up to this point in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise we'd had it pretty good. We'd gotten a classic first movie. We'd gotten a good sequel that was very entertaining and upped the stakes considerably. And with Dead Man's Chest and At World's End being back-to-back sequels, At World's End would surely do the series and mythology justice and give us a good ending, right? Right? 

Early on, this movie centers around our main characters going to bring back Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' Locker. Yes, that's a place that can be physically reached by choice; don't bother asking how. Although Dead Man's Chest suggested the characters were bringing Jack back mostly for the sake of doing it, it turns out there's actually an important reason why the world needs him back: he's one of the nine pirate lords of the pirate Brethren Court. And this entire Brethren Court has to united to go up against the forces of Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman... and Lord Cutler Beckett and his armada, who's put his land under martial law as part of a campaign to exterminate piracy forever. 

There's even more to this plot, but either it's not worth mentioning here or there'd be some big spoilers if I did. Bottom line? This is an unbelievably convoluted third flick. There are so many plots and subplots going on, that you have to be paying close attention to keep track of them all. And even then, it's difficult to keep up with certain characters' motivations, some of which make little sense at times. This is especially a shock considering the first two movies were relatively simple plot-wise.

Oh yeah, and this 168-minute movie is very slow-paced. The first two movies were also pretty fast-paced, but this one much less so. Probably because there are much less action sequences in here. There's the Singapore squabble at the beginning, a couple of brief action-y moments, and the climactic battle. That's it. Seriously. Normally this might not bother me as much, but again, this film is such a shift in pacing from its previous installments it's an extreme letdown. Especially when we're getting stuck during that long runtime with stuff like the ridiculous Brethren Court subplot--which probably could've been removed and only one major thing would have to be changed--or a near-ten minute scene of Jack Sparrow in the Locker hallucinating that I guess is supposed to be funny but is just dumb. 

What they do end up doing with the more important plot points is also problematic at times. Remember the Kraken? One of the best things about the last movie? Yeah, its only appearance is its corpse after getting killed offscreen. And Davy Jones? The literal devil of the seas? Well, due to his disembodied heart being in the hands of Cutler Beckett, he's mostly reduced to a "mongrel pup." (Jones: "I cannot be summoned like some mongrel pup!" Beckett: "Apparently you can.") And although I guess that was ultimately to be expected after seeing the heart end up in Beckett's hands at the end of the last movie, it's still kind of a letdown to see him at basically the complete behest of a mere mortal. He doesn't really truly regain himself much until the end. 

What could've helped this movie is cutting down on all the subplots. The only thing you really need is the continued struggle against Davy Jones and Cutler Beckett, and whatever all that entails. More mythology regarding Jones is revealed, which is certainly important. But beyond that, there's not much more that you need. There's certainly not much use for all of the subplots and the mind-numbing number of double-crosses. Maybe leave a couple in, but... seriously, this movie is just way too bloated. 

And then there's the ending. Which I can't describe very well without spoilers, but it tries its hardest to murder the franchise. It's not just the usual "tragic hero death" that we get every now and then. What happens ultimately is straight up *cruel,* and makes you wonder just what in the world the director and writers were thinking. 

Now, I've been ranting long enough about everything I dislike about this movie. Obviously, there is some good in it. The climactic battle itself (*before* the cruel ending mentioned earlier) is incredible. The humor is upped a little bit again after being slightly more absent in the previous movie; some of the efforts are misguided, but there's still some hilarious moments. The acting is still great, and Geoffrey Rush's return as Barbossa is welcome. Chow Yun-fat is a nice newcomer as well. And there's very impressive cinematography, particularly on the journey to the Locker. And Hans Zimmer's soundtrack--as in previous installments--is nearly flawless.

It's not like this film is unwatchable or anything. It is watchable, but it is also much more tedious to sit through. The film has one fairly conflicted at times; at one moment they might be going "So awesome/funny!" and the next they might be snoring. I probably still could've excused some of the film's other missteps if they hadn't created such a bad ending.

At World's End is technically not one of the worst threequels of all time. But it does have one of the worst endings I've ever seen for such a movie, and it is also one of the bigger letdowns considering how well they'd done the last two go-rounds. Could it have been worse? Actually, yes. And while some may be less bothered by the ending than others and may actually feel sightly more fulfilled than others by the time the credits rolled, the feeling will probably be the same for most regardless: out of the first three movies, this one's the worst by a long shot.