Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

At World's End is to the sequel to the excellent Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and is the third in the series of movies based on a Disney adventure park attraction. With the first two movies being so successful and having thoroughly enjoyed both of them, deciding to go and see this one was a no-brainer…

The East-India Trading Company, under the command of the thoroughly nasty Lord Cutler-Beckett (Tom Hollander), has declared war on the pirates and all who collaborate with them. Having been given the still-beating heart of Davy Jones by Norrington (Jack Davenport), he also commands the services of the Flying Dutchman and its grisly crew and is steadily decimating the pirate community, but to what end? What's he after?

Meanwhile, the song has been sung and the brethren council of the Pirate Lords must be brought together to decide how to answer the threat posed by Cutler-Beckett but that needs all nine of them and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and the Black Pearl were eaten by the Kraken to settle his debt to Davy Jones (Bill Nighy).


So, the mysterious Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) has brought Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) back from the dead and, along with Elizabeth (Kiera Knightley), Will (Orlando Bloom) and the rest of the crew, they head for Singapore to seek the aid of local pirate lord, Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) in a quest to rescue Jack and the Pearl from the land of the dead - Davy Jones' Locker!

Another convoluted plot, rife with laughs and we really enjoyed it. This film has had some poor press with some reviewers saying it's over-long, short on action and that the storyline had been done to death but I can't see where they got any of that from. Admittedly, a few scenes could have been shortened but the overall storyline fits in very well with the preceeding two films and the comedy and horror elements are still up there as well. Frankly, if the reviewers lost the plot, then they weren't paying attention.


Johnny Depp is still on top form and is hilarious as Jack while Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley play the straight guys well too, even if they are a little on the bland side. Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy are excellent as Barbossa and Jones and you just have to hate Tom Hollander as the nasty Cutler-Beckett. With that and some great support from the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport, Stellan Skarsgård and Chow Yun-Fat, it really couldn't fail. Even the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards get a role as Captain Teague, Jacks' dad, and does a good job of it as well.

With the exception of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, everyone of import to the plot is or has been either a pirate or a politician so they're all out to double or even triple-deal everyone else. It does make it all a bit confusing but director Gore Verbinski does a good job of pulling all these threads together and bringing the tale to a satisfactory ending. Both of us enjoyed it and would recommend it. If you seen the first two films, then go and see this one but don't blink or you'll lose track of it.

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror.
My Rating: 8/10