Franchise Reviews - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

 

How long is this movie? And where did all this lore spring up from? Released in 2007, At World's End was filmed back-to-back with Dead Man's Chest.

Anyway, here's a recap; Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl were dragged to Davy Jones' Locker (an afterlife) by the Kraken. Norrington has stolen Davy Jones' heart and delivered it to Lord Cutler Beckett. Will, Elizabeth, and Jack's crew seek refuge with a voodoo priestess named Tia Dalma, played by Naomi Harris. She reveals that they could rescue Jack by making a journey to the World's End (not the pub in Newton Haven). As they need a captain who knows the way, she has resurrected Captain Barbossa.

Okay, that's a decent setup for a sequel. But they've added more plot on top of that: Beckett seeks to eradicate piracy, and is using the heart to leverage Davy Jones into serving the East India Company's fleet now commanded by Admiral James Norrington. He carries out summary executions of anybody remotely associated with pirates, which prompts a summoning of the nine pirate lords who comprise "The Brethren Court". Unfortunately, Jack happens to be one of those pirate lords, and had never appointed a successor. Which means his crew have to rescue him from Davy Jones' Locker (which was their plan anyway). But to do that, they have to go to Singapore to obtain navigational charts from Captain Sao Feng, the Pirate Lord of the South China Sea played by Chow Yun-Fat (even though Barbossa was supposed to know the way). On top of that, there's supposed to be some goddess called Calypso, whom Davy Jones once loved, and Sao Feng believes that Elizabeth is Calypso bound in human form, and wants to release her to help fight off the company. Just get to the bloody final battle we've all been waiting for. And whoever kills Davy Jones has to take his place (ferrying souls to the afterlife).

Yeah, I wasn't keen on this one. They crammed more story and characters into it, on top of an already complex story set up in the previous one. It just results in even more exposition. Meanwhile, Will and Elizabeth have a tense relationship because Will saw Elizabeth kissing Jack when she left him to die at the end of the previous film. That didn't really add much to the last film either.

However, I still like the action, especially the explosive finale, and all the characters are still fun to watch. I'd have loved to see the other pirate lords involved more in the story, but the film's long enough as it is. There's even an interesting cameo by Keith Richards as Captain Teague, who keeps the record of the Pirate Code and is also Jack's father. Apparently Jack Sparrow's mannerisms and design were based quite heavily on Keith Richards. That's kinda hilariously meta.

I'm dreading the next one.