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The very end of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" was more like the end of a play's first act, after which the audience had to endure a nine month intermission. The second act--"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"--begins practically where the last film left off, in which Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) made an unexpected return after Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) was swallowed by the kraken. Not surprisingly, such a surprise ending got me all revved up for yet another round of swashbuckling fun, and I spent the year on pins and needles. If only this new film lived up to my expectations: while it is very entertaining, and while it is still worth recommending for sheer escapism, I'd be lying if I said that it matches the quality of the first two films. Part of the problem is that everything about this film is simply too big. The number of new characters alone is quite distracting, especially since they all make important contributions to the story. The subplots are piled on top of each other, resulting in a film that's needlessly complicated and overly energized. With all of that said, there was still quite a bit to enjoy. The special effects were pretty good. The only bad spot involves Calypso and, for spoiling the plot's sake, I won't go into any detail about the matter. Plenty of action can be found on land and sea (and even in the afterworld). There's still a lot of humor in this film, but it takes itself way too seriously to be fully enjoyed as a comedy. In summary I'd have to say that if you enjoyed the first two films, you're sure to like this one. It does get bogged down by multiple plotlines and suffers from a long running time, but so did the second film. I give it three-and-a-half stars, but round up due to the wonderful first film.Read full review
We have to admit that the Pirates of the Carribbean movies are the most innovative and remarkable series coming out of our modern Hollywood era. It was so popular that it could simply falls into the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and dare I said it : Star Wars franchise. The problem with it is that it wasn't intended to be a trilogy in the first place but was forced upon and thus that in itself is against the movies especially this last ones ( comparably similar to The Matrix trilogy movies and thus in our opinion falls under THAT category instead ). This last one in the series is somewhat disappointing and brought NOTHING new to the trilogy in terms of plot wise. We were initially hyped over this one especially with the ending of the second ones ( Dead Man's Chest ) which left us wanting more. First of all, the subtitle is somewhat misleading as the movie only deals with At World's End in the first quarter of the movie. Secondly the movie tends to drag on with the "betrayal" plots of the characters that somehow makes them stupid and comical ( the first two movies have already had enough of these kind of betrayals ). Half of the nearly 3 hours movie covers these betrayals of the main characters towards one another which makes the movie boring and unnecessarily long. There isn't any new concepts or plots brought to this last installment except for the excellent but extremely UNDER-developed Chow Yun-Fat character. The first movie introduces Captain Barbossa and has successfully makes him a strong and unique character besides Jack Sparrow. The second movie introduces Davy Jones which makes it somewhat unique especially with the dead man's chest concept. However this last movie BRIEFLY introduces Sao Feng (Chow Yuen-Fatt) as one of the nine pirates ( SPOILERS ALERT !!! ) but somehow killed his character before he was even fully developed. This is so to make rooms for more of the betrayal plots which are unnecessary and boringly long and confusing. If only the script writers could developed more of Chow Yuen-Fatt's character with more magical powers of the Far East ( Captain Barbossa has his undead crew and Davy Jones has his sea-like crew and the Kraken ) but what does Chow Yuen-Fatt's character has to make him unique ? Nothing !!! Speaking of which, what is it with the Kraken !!! ( SPOILERS ALERT !!! ) - it is found dead ( huh? ) just like that ... washed ashore. Even the so-called oracle ( Davy Jones' estranged lover ) is hyped initially but then fails to deliver. The only saving grace is the effects in the beginning especially the journey to the World's End area and the Far Eastern environment with excellent performance from Chow Yuen-Fatt and their costumes but this is all in the first half of the movie and the second half of it deals with more stupidly structure betrayals and comedic scenes ( as what we saw from the end bits of the second movies but more prolonged ). I guess this is the ending to the trilogy and thus in a way have to be watched if you have seen the first two although this is hardly the GRAND Finale !!! (at least the Matrix trilogy has it). One thing it does best is to provide you with much-hyped plots but then simply changes them in a cruising and disappointing results which do not match the initial hyped plots.Read full review
I'm looking at it this way, if you take parts 2 and 3 as one giant sized movie, and rate them on their own merits, totally ignoring the first one, then they are both good movies. I hate to keep bleating on and on but they are NOT as good as the original. Part 3, as with part 2, seems to have the fun sucked out of the franchise. This part of the trilogy is VERY dark and moody with deaths all over the place. People die via hanging, gutting, stabbing, explosions and many other ways. What I originally liked about the first movie was the lightheartedness of it all, the rest of the trilogy is sorely lacking that (especially the third part) but as I said, if you take them for what they are, they are not BAD movies, they are just different. The plot is basically a whole bunch of pirates have to gang together to beat the bad guy, but somebody says they are working for this person, but really they are working for that person, or are they really working for another person? add this to all of the main characters and you have your "mystery" (confusing as it is) Once again the movie is FAR TOO LONG (by at least thirty minutes) but to be fair the last 40 or so (just like with the second movie) are very good, exciting stuff and it has a satisfying end. However the first part of the movie (I am looking at the first 45 minutes here) are really slow and to be honest, a bit pointless. (SPOILER!) If they had not killed off Jack at the end of the second movie (SPOILER!) then they would not have had to waste time bringing him back in the third, which would have made the movies a lot tighter overall. Yeah, I know why they did it, but still...Read full review
The Pirates of the Caribbean-movie serials is probably one I'll never grow tired off. The characters are fun and great, always adventurous and spectacular to watch. It's really too bad that this time they felt the need to make things even bigger, more complex and conclusive than the previous two movies. Really not needed. In my opinion the first movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is still the best because of the reason that it's simple, fun and choices to be purely entertaining. They already went wrong with this approach during the second movie; "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", when they put in more new characters and different hard to follow plot lines. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" goes on in the same trend as the previous movie. There are more new characters and as far as the new many plot-lines are concerned...well let me just say that after a while I just gave up trying to understand the movie and just let the movie take me away with its visuals, humor and other entertaining elements. And this movie regardless should really be able to take you away on a roller-coaster-ride of pure entertainment. No doubt in my mind that this movie could had become the best one out of the series. It had all the potential and budget for that, now if they had only cut down about halve of the script...Most of the plot-lines seem redundant and are actually far from believable because they contradict from what happened in the first two movies. The many betrayals among characters and side-picking became really confusing after a while, till it reached a point when you just didn't knew who was fighting for what. But like I said before, after a while you just stop caring about it and simply enjoy the movie for what it brings you. It all is also the reason why the movie is now nearly 3 hours long. Now the movie is not as good and entertaining as the first but maybe just slightly better than the second one, because of the large scale of this movie. The movie is definitely big. There is no lack of action as some people claim there is. There is just as much action as there is in the first two movies, only difference this time is that the movie is nearly 3 hours long and therefor the movie also has some more talking-sequences and slower moments in it. The movie is also big with its musical score by Hans Zimmer and he actually succeeded in composing a new great theme for the movie. In its action moments the movie gets definitely uplifted by its musical score. The action sequences are definitely well constructed and at times pure eye candy. So are the special effects, although I feel that the second movie was still better on that. It seems like they tried to overdo things this time and I'm mainly talking about the end battle, when it comes down to its special effects, by putting in some complex shots. No matter how good CGI is these days, you still see that it's CGI. Most roles get extended in this movie. Marty, Tia Dalma and even Jack the monkey and Cotton's parrot. But of course the movie still remains the Jack Sparrow-show. Really one of the best characters in recent years, all thanks to Johnny Depp, who provide the movie with its biggest laughs and most hilarious absurd moments. He still plays the character as good and fresh as he did for the first time 4 years ago. You can't just ever grow tired of Jack Sparrow. I was also very pleased to see Geoffrey Rush back as Barbossa.Read full review
The latest edition of the swashbuckling adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow... This time, Jack is lost in Davy Jones' Locker, and the crew of the Black Pearl is fighting to get Jack back. If you liked the first installments of Pirates, you will love this one. It is the same action, adventure, comedy and romance, just MORE of it! The special effects are believable and the story line is captivating. The special features are also entertaining. Having just entered the worls of Blu-ray, I don't own a whole bunch, but I must say, you can really tell the difference. It is almost as if the movies are 3-D. The lines and contrasts are very clear. As my wife has pointed out, you can see every zit and blemish in people's skin! It's that clear. For good or bad, that's what it is. This movie has a bit of gore, as in Pirates past, so it is not for the younger members of the family. But my 7 year old likes the movie, so... Overall, good entertainment for the older members of the family, and a very memorable song.Read full review
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