Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

Four years ago, Disney, Bruckheimer and Verbinski took us into a world that, up until that point, had only been known from a ride. Now they have brought the story to a close.

Was it worthy? How ’bout a preview or two first?

DADDY DAY CAMP–So, I know I’ve said something about this before. It’s crap. We know it. The studio knows it. Cuba Gooding, Jr. especially knows it.

Here, though, is why I’m bringing it up again: I was watching the credits to see who directed this bull….OH SHIT!!! FRED FUCKING SAVAGE!!!

That’s right. Fred Savage. Now, I have a great deal of affection for this kid (who is only a year younger than me, so not so much a kid anymore) because he was the star of my favorite show ever. That doesn’t mean that I want to watch this piece of shit, though. I can only hope that his feature directorial debut doesn’t ruin his career. Poor Fred.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS–I can’t wait for this, but a lot of you know that already. It had better be as amazing as the book was. One thing, though: Lyra has a buddy in this story and he doesn’t show up AT ALL in the trailer. He’s one of the main points of the story, so he had better have a big part in the movie. His name is in the credits (Roger), so he’s there. I just hope that they don’t write him out early or something.

Ok, that’s it for previews. Now, it’s a pirates’ life for me.

As we all know from the last movie, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) has been dragged into Davy Jones’ Locker by the Kracken. Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) has returned from the dead to help the cause. Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) is the witch who manged THAT bit of mischief. And the Indian Trading Company, lead by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), is trying to kill off all of the pirates because “It’s just good business.”

That may be, but they won’t go out without a fight.

This one starts basically where Dead Man’s Chest left off. We’re right in the midst, though, of their plan to rescue Jack…and it involves Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) and his crew. Of course, THEY won’t come easily, either.

And what of Jack? Well, he’s in the netherworld with the Black Pearl having a rather Being John Malkovich moment.

Meanwhile, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the Flying Dutchman have been taken over by the ITC. They have control of Jones’ heart, so they control him.

Yes, all looks lost. But don’t count out Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and all of their friends just yet. They have a LOT of tricks up their sleeves.

Maybe a few too many, actually. There’s a LOT happening in all of these movies. I think you have to see them about three times before you really figure out what the hell is going on. Is Jack as treacherous as everyone thinks he is? Or does he know exactly what he’s doing and how to benefit everyone? Is Barbossa just playing them all? Is Davy Jones as evil as we think he is? (Ok, that’s pretty black and white.) I Tia Dalma what she seems to be? And what of Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard)? Will Norrington (Jack Davenport) choose a side?

And how in the HELL does all of this work?!

I can barely answer that, really. But I had a lot of fun trying to figure it out. And, at some point, I’ll watch all three movies in the same day and try to piece everything together. It’ll be tough, though.

These movies have done one thing VERY well that I think everyone can agree on: They have created the world of the pirates better than any other movie before them has. The Black Pearl is a pretty typical pirate boat. It’s dirty, dingy and disgusting. The crew is the same. And they’re a murderous bunch. Most of the captains would just as soon kill one of their own crew who eyed the wrong piece of gold as spit on an enemy. The look of the series has been absolutely amazing.

One of the best scenes in this movie was the Pirate Council scene. All nine of the Pirate Lords gathered together to figure out what to do about this new threat…and they almost kill each other doing it. Yes, there is a code of conduct among these guys…but it’s REALLY loose. The Pirate Lords are from all corners of the world and it’s awesome to see that there weren’t just British pirates. Singapore, China, France, Africa…they all have pirates. And they’re all even more fierce than the Brits.

I don’t think there was nearly as much honor amongst real pirates as there was in these movies, but that wouldn’t have made for nearly as good of a movie. We have to like SOME of these characters, right?

The music has also been very good throughout. Taking bits and pieces from the music from the ride, Hans Zimmer has written music that fits so perfectly with the pirate times that I now can’t imagine anything else sounding this much like a pirate story. And there’s even a little bit of spaghetti western thrown in for good measure. Pure awesomeness.

Jack is the heart and soul of these movies. Without him, there really wouldn’t be much of a series. Johnny Depp has created a character that will live in his filmography forever. Seriously, this guy’s up there with Edward Scissorhands. It’s amazing and just keeps getting better with each movie. When he comes face to face with his dad (Keith Richards), it’s perfect. Yeah, Ol’ Keef was a LOT more subdued than I thought he would be, but he was still awesome. And, yes, he played guitar and, yes, he wore his skull ring. The best thing about Keith being a pirate is that they didn’t have to do too much make-up on him. Keith Richards is probably the only pirate left alive. He’s barely recognizable these days. Love the guy, but he looks ROUGH.

Elizabeth and Will are still just basically objects to propel the narrative further, but they have a little more of a heartbeat in this one. You feel more for them after spending three movies with them than in the others. They’re love’s on the rocks, but you actually start to want them to stay together as opposed to not really caring too much.

I really like this whole series. The story is actually complex and interesting. The characters are fun to be with. The action is well shot and fun. (Michael Bay REALLY needs to take lessons from Gore Verbinski.) It may not be a perfect trilogy, but it’s enough fun to forgive any of the quibbles there might be.

Make sure you stay through the credits for a short epilogue.