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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END |
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By : Suzanne Philips |
Movie Reviews List | |
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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT
WORLD'S END
Written by: Ted Elliot, Terry
Rossio
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando
Bloom, Kiera Knightly, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, Chow Yun-Fat, Bill
Nighy, Tom Hollander
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hours 48 min.
The last installment in the
PIRATES trilogy, AT WORLD'S END, picks up where DEAD MAN'S CHEST left
off. Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and the East India Trading
Company is trying to rid the world of pirates. He begins hanging anyone
suspected of associating with pirates as a way to draw out the Pirate
Lords to finish them off. The Pirate Lords are pushed into action -
calling a meeting of the Brethren Council to determine how to fight off
the threat.
AT WORLD'S END is a much
darker PIRATES film. The script is darker, the stakes are higher as the
Pirates face extinction. Not as many laughs to be found here as in the
other two films. There are still comedic moments, but they are surrounded
with more violence and stronger themes (love lost, sacrifice for those you
care about, death, domination, etc.) than in the prior films.
There are some lovely scenes
in this film. Some of the special effects and scenery is quite
breathtaking and the scenes that are on point are spectacular.
Unfortunate, the through line of the film is hard to find. The script is
convoluted and hard to follow in places and it does look as though it was
shot out of sequence and put back together. The continuity is off in
places and it seems like what should have been a fairly simple plot to
follow - the Pirates joining forces to fight off those who would make them
extinct - is dressed up in scenes that are often more complicated than
need be. The dialogue also gets lost in a few places where the score
overtakes some lines and the audience finds it hard to understand perhaps
what just occurred.
Verbinski's direction is, once
again, top notch. He really gets a lot from the actors in AWE. Orlando
Bloom's character of Will Turner is more fleshed out here and he shows
that he is more than just pretty scenery. His portrayal shows the hidden
depths of Turner more than we have seen before. Also Tom Hollander gives
us an outstanding performance as Lord Beckett, the man you love to hate.
Johnny Depp is, of course, fantastic again as Sparrow and has a great time
playing off himself is the Davy Jones' Locker scenes. He always commands
the screen when he is on it. It is nice to see some of the supporting
characters from the other films back with more to do in PIRATES 3. Jack
Davenport is quite good as Norrington (even though his time onscreen is
brief) and Geoffrey Rush is so much fun to watch and has a great deal of
screen time in this installment.
Keira Knightly has a huge role
in AT WORLD'S END. While I am all for female empowerment, she has way too
many big, "inspiring" speeches and tends to scream throughout each
one. It gets rather old pretty quickly. Also Chow Yun-Fat shows up in
the film as Sao Feng, one of the Pirate Lords. His part exists primarily
to put Elizabeth Swann into a position of power and his scenes are
somewhat pointless and he is completely mis-used as an actor.
There is a ton of action in
AWE. The sword fighting scenes are amazingly choreographed and executed
and are worth the price of admission.
The film is quite long and
while there are some amazing scenes, the film as a whole doesn't really
work. As a PIRATES film, it falls a bit short, but when compared to other
films that we have seen recently, it is still a good bet for your money.
Rating 3 out of 5
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