Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, 2.5 stars
Saw the last episode Gore Verbinski’s Disney theme park ride-inspired pirate trilogy yesterday. And didn’t like it much. Stars-wise even less than part two a year ago (which probably snuck in an extra star based on the great makeup on Davy Jones).
Indeed, this is not a very good movie. While it has some great moments, they are separated by wastelands of meaningless action, most wooden dialogue north of the antarctic, and very little of the unexpected charm that made the first part the hit it deservedely is. The plot turns, but the arcs are slow, and signposted for the viewers to catch. Some of the plot devices are unexpectedly clumsy - good/bad Jacks talking back to Captain Sparrow come to mind first - but some raise the bar significantly. Though the chillest moment is at the very beginning, when the pirates and collaboratiors get to understand what martial law really means.
Johnny Depp is surprisingly subdued in his third outing of Jack Sparrow, and as such the other pirates run rings around him. Especially Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa, who has earned a lot of swagger since the first part of the trilogy. Chow Yun-Fat is criminally underused, but his scarred head does make an immediate impression when he hits the screen.
Quite a waste, really. With deft cutting and splicing, the two parts could have made a single good movie - now we’re left with two very mediocre ones.
Like last time, there’s a post-credits scene - this time more meaningful. But worth the wait? That’s for you to decide, especially when hesari spoiled the contents in last week’s nyt.
Back for more? Probably - the end is left sufficiently open for the franchise to resurface when the Disney magic starts running dry again.
Encountered my first case of cinema rage in the theatre. Sat in the very last row of Tennispalatsi 1, and noted that a bunch of annoyingly loud and talkative folks sat to the right of me. The volume was loud enough to mask most of the noise, and the guy sitting next to me was thankfully the silent one of the group and functioned as isolation once the film got going. The woman sitting on the other side of the group clearly wasn’t thus protected, and let her annoyance show in a verbal lashing when the credits started rolling. Way to go, seriously, and worth a late and remote thank you. It’s simply wrong to shown up in a cinema merely chat with your friends.
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