The Milan News-Leader
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'Pirates' sports incredible action
PUBLISHED: May 31, 2007
I am Ryan Michaels. Have you heard of me yet? Well, I am not in the least bit surprised if you say no because I am no Roger Ebert. I'm a kid, a 10-year-old movie fanatic who loves writing reviews as much as watching movies. Below is my take on "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the third of my summer movie reviews for Heritage Newspapers. Watch for more reviews as I catch all the summer's best flicks.
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Captain Jack Sparrow is back in the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean," "At World's End." But it's not really as much a sequel to last year's "Dead Man's Chest" as a continuation, and a fine continuation it is.
Cliffhanger second films have generally sported worthy continuations, such as in "Back to the Future 3" and "The Matrix 3." The third in "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise is better than those two films, and although it barely falls short of the first Pirates, it improves on the second film 10-fold -- and I liked that one.
When my expectations were not totally met with "Spider-Man 3" and "Shrek the Third," I held out hope for this sequel. Sure, the second one got decidedly mixed reviews, but the cliffhanger ending, while being a cheap trick, left people wanting more Pirates.
Well, they got it.
Almost everything is wrapped up nicely as the unanswered questions weren't big enough to warrant an explanation. But one major character's outcome really bothered me.
You might want to walk into the theater armed with three things:
A chart to decipher what's going on.
A list to check off which characters are dead or faking it. (You'll check off a lot of people.)
Kleenex.
The film's a healthy two hours and 50 minutes long, with about as many subplots and contrivances as, say, "Babel" and "Spider-Man 3" combined. But who cares? This is a summer blockbuster. Cut it some slack.
We start immediately where the second film left off, where the once-bad-guy Captain Barbossa comes back from the dead to help Will, Elizabeth and company rescue Jack from Davy Jones' locker. They go to pirate lord Sao Feng for help, and are rudely interrupted in their conversation by the entire British navy in a huge attack.
In a primary subplot, would-be weds Will Turner and Elizabeth are ticked at each other for various reasons, the primary one being Will mistook Elizabeth for kissing Jack. So when Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa and company finally rescue Jack from Davy Jones' locker (or World's End), Jack is delusional to the point of talking to himself and imagining several other Jacks around him, resulting in a rather dull, prolonged sequence.
Freaky, tentacle-ladened sea lord Davy Jones is extremely mad at Jack, especially after Jack succeeded in stealing his much-treasured Dead Man's Chest, which winds up in the hands of the British army, evaded and killed his "pet" sea-monster, The Kraken, and for being associated with all Davy's enemies -- and his ex-flame.
When he hears of Jack being rescued from Jones' locker, he combines his gruesome army of sea-monsters with the vast British forces and, voila, you have one big army.
With the wily Sparrow, Elizabeth, the brave Turner and lots of eccentric pirates from around the world join to fight the greatest army ever forged. But with Elizabeth's father dead, Will's father a rotting monster-guy on Davy Jones' ship and Jack's dad among the nine pirate lords, there's lots of extra motivations and betrayals thrown into the mix.
The last hour has the most mind-blowing action ever since the last 30 minutes of "Terminator 2," and that was 1991. The entire scene probably cost a good $100 million out of the reported $300 million cost of the film.
The battle between good pirates, bad pirates, monsters and the entire British army is incredible and easily gets this film the high rating of 4 1/2 stars that I give it.
Now, mind you, some scenes lacked satisfying conclusion and others complete purpose, but the superb acting, action and production design will blow the minds of many as it did mine.
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