Guy Jeffries
- May 26, 2017
- 3 min read

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Review

Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Chow Yun-Fat, Jonathan Pryce, Mackenzie Crook, Lee Arenberg, Kevin McNally, Martin Klebba, David Bailie, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hollander, Naomie Harris, David Schofield, Robbie Gee, Max Baker, Andy Beckwith, Reggie Lee, Keith Richards, Angus Barnett, Giles New, Omid Djalili.

This probably has the darkest opening for the series, with thieves and pirates singing the song to summon the brethren court, to gather the nine pirates lords. One of which is Capt. Jack Sparrow, along with Capt. Barbossa. This is where the story falls apart because it seems to be too big a deal to be only finding out now after nearly five hours of story time. Surely there would have been a hint of it before, like everything else they hint at. This all possibly because they didn't know how they were going to end the film, seeing as filming commenced before they had a finished script. This explains the very messy ending and you can imagine the many rewrites along the way, though isn't totally noticeable.

It's the last of the trilogy, for now but it certainly pairs the last two up, neither really being able to survive without the other, with Dead Man's Chest providing the set-up and this, At World's End concluding the story. The Curse of the Black Pearl can be watched in isolation and is nothing more than an origin story for the main characters.

So, they have to get the deranged Capt. Jack Sparrow back from Davy Jones' locker, which ensures the most surreal voyage seen before, and getting there is one thing; getting back is something else entirely. And only Capt. Sao Feng (Yun-Fat) who resides in Singapore knows how to help them.

The very same slapstick action is there, especially during the final conclusion. But it seems a lot of the imagination has been spent on the weirdness during the first half of the film. There appears to be more parlay than clashing of swords this time round, though the navel onslaught is probably the best of the franchise so far. Being the most expensive film ever made at the time, one would expect to see treasure.

This time it's war. Lord Beckett has Davy Jones acting as his personal Grim Reaper, conquering the seas wiping out pirates as they sail, forcing the remaining pirates to come to an accord and decide to fight. Something most Pirates can never do, band together that is. Again, loaded with more turncoats, mutinies and betrayals. Pirates eh? It's almost gets difficult to know who's on who's side, being that they're all actually out for themselves.

But it goes deeper and deeper with each double cross as everyone's own hidden agenda comes to light. There's actually a danger of realising that Barbossa is actually a more skilful, knowledgeable pirate than Capt. Jack, who's mostly foolhardy and lucky. Swann is a bit of a slut, having kissed every main character apart from Barbossa I think. And she goes from deckhand, to captain to blooming Pirate King all in one movie! (surely that makes her a Queen and not a King?) and she's still annoying, more so than ever.

It drops it's brain towards the end and starts to rapidly sail off course that isn't helped by the uninspiring Braveheart speech from Knightley. But it's saved by an epic finale, with a wedding ceremony none of us will be accustomed to and a very strange twist of fate that whilst concluding the trilogy and comes full circle, it does leave it very open for more.

Question is, do we want more? Depp has stated that's he's quite happy to keep playing Capt. Jack Sparrow for many more adventures but should they quit while they're ahead?

Running Time: 7

The Cast: 8

Performance: 7

Direction: 9

Story: 7

Script: 9

Creativity: 10

Soundtrack: 10

Job Description: 9

The Extra Bonus Point: 0

Would I buy the Blu-ray?: Already do!