Movie Review

Pirates Of The Caribbean: World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End arrives in theaters to capture a goldmine, and boy oh boy will it. From the opening passages of this sweeping epic, the movie plays like a monster of a Disneyland ride, but loses its touch little by little as time goes. At two hours and forty-five minutes, Pirates works as a breezy action flick for about an hour, then stalls for about an hour, and then charges towards its loud finale that's a bit too chaotic and silly for its own good. There are many good things wrapped up in this production, but they are weighed down by too many dead beats and a story that asks us to care more than it's cinematically possible for a blockbuster.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer deserves credit to the nth degree for not only putting this enormous production together but bringing in the masses once again even after Pirates of the Caribbean 2 drew mixed reactions. Whether you like or hate where this franchise went, you have to salute the man's achievement. Visually, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is awe-inducing with its backdrops and production design, and for the most part plays a like to trip to Disneyland with all the spectacle tourists desire. It's hard to watch the movie without being caught up in how beautifully produced it is, disregarding actual quality in terms of material and performance; it has huge production value.

In terms of material and performance, Pirates 3 is hit and miss. Johnny Depp still looks alive as Jack Sparrow, although the fascination over his role has depreciated since he isn't being called upon to do anything too out of the ordinary now. Even with his bouts of split-personality in this installment (which strangely seems to parallel his role in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas), Depp isn't as fun to watch here as he was before. Orlando Bloom, like in the previous two entries, isn't exactly a treasure in the acting department, but Keira Knightley still proves decent again even with a lack of real substance to carry her forward. Keith Richards, who will probably inspire a Where's Waldo-guessing game for many as to when he will show up, almost steals the show in the most toned down and subtle performance in the flick. I was expecting quite a wild cameo of a role for him, and instead they downplayed him. Some may see that as a classy move or disappointing considering the massive buzz surrounding his casting.

Word on Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (B-/B) was all over the map, and I felt it worked for the most part. Though it was a little long, I thought it was fun and it didn't try too hard to force out unnecessary subplots. One of Pirates 3?s glaring faults is indeed the nearly three-hour running time, which is absolutely unnecessary. It tries to introduce various new ideas, none of which it really elaborates on, which just induces sheer confusion. The last forty-five minutes of this feature is action-overload with an epic sea battle that thinks mass chaos works, but feels too staged. As is, there are bits to get excited over, but summer should be reserved for simple and to the point action fests - which it seems we will have to look up to Transformers in July to deliver that result.

Lee's Grade: C+
Ranked #41 of 150 between Ocean's 13 (#40) and Death at a Funeral (2007) (#42) for 2007 movies.

A	0.4%
B	30.0%
C	61.7%
D	8.0%
F	0.0%