Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007, PG-13)

At World’s End, the end of the story arc that began with the previous year’s Dead Man’s Chest is a disappointment on a huge scale.  Costing over 300 million, becoming one of the most expensive movies ever made, at World’s End even doesn’t contain Jack Sparrow’s wit and charm.

            The many confusing, messy and needless plotlines and subplots make the film only go on to almost 3 hours and also make the film tedious, unengaging and uninteresting, and at times rather awkward.  After rescuing Jack from Davy Jones Locker, our band of heroes, including a resurrected Barbarossa, join forces with the other pirates, who band together to fight the East India Trading Company, who now has Davy Jones under their control.

            That’s the basis of the plot; I don’t want to get into all of the details, because it could seriously make my head hurt in writing it all out.  Gone is most of Depp’s charm and irresistible comical behavior that was present in both previous films.  Rush appears again as Captain Barbossa, the villain of the first, and much better, movie.  He’s back just as before; his character hasn’t changed, and for the first time, Depp/Sparrow is surpassed in terms of likeability.  So sad, and so unfortunate for the franchise.

            The movie climaxes in a battle in the middle of a maelstrom with the Flying Dutchman vs. the Black Pearl.  The climactic battle goes on forever, and ends with another plot twist (I think I forgot to mention that there are tons of those present, and can get pretty annoying).  In addition, I didn’t like how the film ended, and leads us on to yet another adventure.

            At World’s End has got to be one of the biggest, most expensive, action-packed and bloated movies I’ve ever seen, and a colossal summer disappointment.  Though it may be the most epic of the Pirates of the Caribbean yet, it was also the least enjoyable.  Basically, all it had to prove is how big summer flicks can be to gross hundreds of millions of dollars at the box-office.  And a movie doesn't have to be that big to still make a much more satisfying expierence.

                                             * ½/5