Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (spoilers)
So. At last, AWE.
I'll try not to be too spoilerific and just say a couple of things. I liked this movie much, much more than Dead Man's Chest. There were a few things that irked me--why, why does everyone lust after Elizabeth? I don't get that. Why did Chow Yun-Fat have roughly 10 minutes of screen time? Why did he think that Elizabeth was Calypso in the first place? Why the hell did they do that to Norrington? Why would Beckett want Jones to kill the Kracken instead of using it as a weapon against the pirates? Why did Calypso and Jones not have a final confrontation? Where the hell did this Calypso story line come from anyway? That, and the whole pirate-lords-and-pieces-of-eight stuff?
Other than that, heck yeah. It becomes obvious on repeat viewings that these stories are actually more about Will's journey (and, in turn, I think through the three movies you can see a lot of Orlando's growth as an actor here--he is great at the end of this too. He didn't have a lot to work with in these movies, being the "straight" man to Johnny Depp's kooky comedy, so I was glad that in this movie they finally fulfill his character arc and destiny and give him something to do in a big, big way--they let him go out in a blaze of glory, so to speak, that he does very, very well) than they are about Jack, as popular as he is--and this story delivers. I thought the ending was fantastic. I did not see it coming in any way--I would never have predicted it would go there--it is not your typical Disney ending in anyway, at least not for Will and Elizabeth, even if you did stay after the credits and see what happens "ten years later." It is extremely un-Disneyfied, I must note, what happens to Elizabeth (this is hard to say without spoiling everything, so sorry)--that she basically loses everything and everyone she loved--and is this her repayment for what she did to Jack? Because that is pretty much skimmed over and joked about but forgiven quickly and not mentioned much again.
The much-talked-about Keith Richards cameo is great. This movie is both darker, and much funnier, at the same time, than Dead Man's Chest, if that makes sense. I don't get the critics' assertions that it's convoluted and hard-to-follow, because if you've seen the first two movies, minus one or two quibbles, you should have no problem. I could have done without the giant Tia Dalma thing (though when she turns into crabs, the crabs helping out Jack in Davy Jones' locker thing makes sense), and the multiple Jacks, though hilarious, was a bit over-the-top.
It was great, as usual, to see Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp play off each other, and all our usual favorite pirate crew is there--Pintel and Ragetti, Cotton, Gibbs, Marty, and even Mullroy and Murtogg are back for this one. Plus Jack the monkey and Cotton's parrot have tons of stuff to do. But I thought it sucked how little screen time Sao Feng has--he basically does just about nothing--especially considering the huge, huge role Keira Knightley has. I think she's got more stuff to do in this one than both Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom, and it's annoying. Her whole subplot as the pirate king/captain thing, though it was necessary to the story, was kind of stupid and unbelievable (though, saying that about a movie where people come back from the dead and there are giant krackens and undead monkeys is pretty stupid, I realize). And her Braveheart-style, rally-the-troops speech is really uninspired, and several people laughed in our theater.
I loved the beginning too, with the executions--it's totally disturbing and really kind of poignant, actually--at first it was like, is this Pirates of the Caribbean? Wow.
Okay I've rambled enough. I do have some quibbles with this movie--it wasn't perfect and it wasn't as good as Curse of the Black Pearl, but it was better than Dead Man's Chest and a worthy end to the original trilogy. Because you know they're going to do more.
3 Stars out of 5.
Spoilers.