Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

There's a rule in Hollywood: if it makes money, keep doing it. This can sometimes be interpreted as doing movies that copy the style of a successful movie, such as the glut of horror remakes we've seen over the last few years. But more often than not, that rule means sequels. And if the sequels make money, you do more sequels. Such was the case with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Inspired by the popular Disneyland ride, it was one of four attempts by the Walt Disney Company to make movies based upon their theme park attractions, and the only one to have any substantial commercial or critical success.

Truth be told, it was a massive hit, and got five Oscar nominations to boot. So naturally, Disney wanted to follow up on it. But instead of just one sequel, Disney ordered two, to be filmed concurrently and released in consecutive summers. The first sequel, Dead Man's Chest, had a mixed reception from critics, but ended up becoming the third movie to gross over one billion dollars at the worldwide box office. The third chapter of the Pirates trilogy, titled At World's End, had some pretty big footsteps to follow in. But did it manage to live up to its two predecessors?

Following the events of Dead Man's Chest, the status quo has drastically shifted. Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), the chairman of the East India Trading Company, has been granted an unprecedented level of power. He has declared martial law over the Caribbean, arresting and executing any man, woman, or child even remotely associated with piracy without a trial. And since he is now in possession of the dead man's chest, Beckett has turned Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) into a slave, forcing Jones and the Flying Dutchman to destroy any pirate ship they encounter.

With no other options, the nine pirate lords must come from every corner of the globe to assemble for a rare meeting of the Brethren Court. But there's one catch: one of the pirate lords, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), was condemned to the mythical realm known as "Davy Jones's Locker" after his duel with the Kraken at the end of the previous movie. Because he failed to name a successor, the Brethren Court cannot meet without him.

And thus, Jack's closest acquaintances — Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Geoffrey Rush), the newly-resurrected Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), and voodoo priestess Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) — must travel to the end of the earth to retrieve him. They are successful in returning Jack to the land of the living, and although there is no trust to be found amongst the pirates, they must come together if they hope to defeat Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company.

There's an ever-growing belief that a "three-quel" will probably end up being a disappointment. Just look up any third movie in a trilogy, and you'll probably hear stories of people complaining about it. But there is a little bit of truth to that belief, because Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is most assuredly the least of the trilogy. It's a convoluted, disjointed mess that runs completely off the rails at roughly the same time the opening credits have concluded. It goes on way too long and is just too hard to follow for me to actually defend it.

Once again at the helm is Gore Verbinski, whose direction is visually astounding. Unfortunately, Verbinski also allows the movie to become boring. There's way too much going on and so little of it is actually interesting. And considering that the movie is a few minutes short of three hours long, that makes the movie practically unbearable. It's just so plodding and tedious that watching At World's End feels more like a chore than anything. Here's the occasional bright spot, but they're sadly few and far between. Perhaps if Verbinski had been willing to trim about thirty minutes of fat, the movie would have worked a little better.

Then again, that wouldn't have helped the script much. Written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the screenplay is bloated, clunky, and full of too many subplots that ultimately make no contributions to the movie. In watching At World's End, I got the feeling that Elliott and Rossio were trying to cram as much as they could into the movie, just in case Disney decided not to make a fourth one. But all it does is make At World's End a jumbled-up mess.

Not even the cast can truly save At World's End. Perhaps the worst offenders are Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly, who I thought were unappealing. It didn't help that I felt Bloom and Knightly's characters were being shoved down my throat, which led me to resent both the characters and the actors. I've heard that Bloom and Knightly won't be appearing in the fourth Pirates movie next summer, which I'm okay with. It's not like anyone is seeing the Pirates movies for them, anyway.

The truth is that everyone is watching them for Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. He's the best part of the first two movies, and At World's End is no exception. Depp is fabulous, with his charm and charisma making him more likable with each scene. I don't know why they even needed any characters or actors beyond Depp. At World's End may be a disappointment, but he most certainly is not.

The remainder of the cast is mixed bag. Tom Hollander and Bill Nighy are great villains, while Chow Yun-Fat does a fine job with his limited screen time. Everyone else is just kinda there, with the exception of Geoffrey Rush. Rush is awesome, playing a perfect foil for Depp. If I could make my own Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the whole thing would be nothing but Depp and Rush chewing the scenery and being awesome.

Sadly, "awesome" is not a word I would use to describe Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. "Mediocre" is more like it. It's not outright bad or anything, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been. The movie is simply two hours and 49 minutes of wasted potential. And on my usual scale, At World's End gets two and a half stars. Hopefully, the fourth one will try improving upon this one's flaws.

Final Rating: **½