There’s a problem that comes with filming two films back to back. The problem comes from the second of the two films. The first film can easily be bad, and if that is the case, chances are these mistakes are not going to be fixed in the sequel. The film will already have been shot, so the only hope of the issues being fixed is in the editing of the already shot footage. In the case of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, it doesn’t even seem like the problems present in Dead Man’s Chest were even attempted to be rectified.
In the, at the time, final installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, we continue from the storyline of Dead Man’s Chest. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) is back, and must lead William Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and the rest of the crew from the previous two movies into Davy Jones’ locker to bring Jack Sparrow back to the face of the Earth. After rescue, the crew must get together the pirate lords of the Brethren Court in order to defeat Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander), and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), who is now sailing under his command.
One of the main problems that Dead Man’s Chest had was that the story was unfocused, and that many of the characters had no room for development. This is even more prominent in At World’s End. There are even more characters to deal with this time around, as each of the pirate lords need to get a decent amount of screen time. They are interesting, but we don’t get to know anything about them, save for the country they originate from. The main cast doesn’t get further development from the previous films, and more or less just continue on with whatever motivations they had in the previous installment. This is especially true with Swann and Turner, as their desires and ambitions were all laid out in the last film; now they just have to follow through with them.
That’s really what At World’s End is. It is a continuation of Dead Man’s Chest, and only serves to finish the story that was started previously. Yes, this is something it should do, because leaving a story unfinished would be an incredible letdown, but it would also be nice to have some entertainment to go along with this conclusion. This is something that the third Pirates movie does not have a lot of.
The first two films were, if nothing else, entertaining. The first film was humorous, action-packed and fresh. It stays that way on multiple viewings. The second film, while not as funny, still boasted great action sequences. At World’s End doesn’t really have either of those. It still does have large-scale action scenes, but they aren’t as exciting as ones in the previous entries. They’re bigger, but on the whole less memorable. The most memorable scenes from the first two movies were arguably the one-on-one, well choreographed sword fights. They were plentiful, and the most exciting parts. In this film, there is one big sword fight scene, and it only occurs right at the end, meaning there isn’t much leading up to it.
Also gone from the previous films is the humor. There aren’t all that many times where you’ll be laughing. This film is more serious in nature than the rest, and the times where it does try to be funny, you can tell that it is trying too hard. The jokes come off as forced, and make you wonder how much longer the film is going to go on for. That’s another problem with the film. It, like Dead Man’s Chest, is too long. The story is complex enough that it could fill its runtime, but it isn’t engaging enough to keep you interested.
If there is one positive to be had, it’s that the score of the film hasn’t changed all that much from the first two films. It is still nice to listen to, and while there are a number of tracks that are taken from previous installments, they still fit the mood of the film nicely. The composers of the soundtrack need to be commended for creating the sole high-point of the otherwise lackluster final part of the trilogy.
At World’s End seemed to be the dividing point of the series for its fans. It brought an unnecessary back-story to a film that didn’t need any more complexity to the story. It also managed to get stale with its attempted humor, as well as having some scenes that were more boring than the previous installments in the series. At World’s End is the low-point in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. There isn’t much freshness left, so it will be a surprise if the fourth film ends up being any better. Although, the series has had some time off, so unlike this film, maybe the next one will fix the numerous problems.
It’s not surprising that this franchise will continue into a further instalment as I’m sure the Box Office alone justifies it. It’s just a shame that we will be getting a fourth film having bear witness to this mediocre production.
Never before has a movie so been so aptly named. Poor scripting, poor performances and poor direction. Just how has Johnny Depp, one of our generations more prominent, interesting performers associated himself to this garbage? It was a good job that he only appears in the film after 35 minutes in but then being treated to ten Jack Sparrows…Jeez!
The tedium set in far earlier that I had anticipated. Yes, I was already expecting this to be bad. But to be so bad that both my head and my bum gave way together is something that doesn’t happen often to me.
There are many problems with this film. I haven’t even got to Mr Bloom and Miss Kneightly. Can you think of two, more wooden performers than this awesome combination?
This film is a lost cause to me and rather than continuing to rant, I would hope to see a final hurrah in the next film so that this film at least serves as a not very good, middle instalment.
Note: “Length is not a function of quality. Please do us a favour and keep the next film snappy. Lose all the superfluous characters and try to develop the exisitng characters from the first film. Let’s go someone with this. Rather than take us on a tedious tour of events, build a story with an outcome.”
My fingers are well and trult crossed.