Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Greatest movie ever put on film? Not by a long shot.

Entertaining? You bet.

It's popcorn. It's eye candy. It's a fun romp. It's a nonsensical head-trip. It's like a cartoon. Pure suspension of disbelief.

To sum up to the plot:

Everyone betrays everyone and they make amends and then they betray each other again.

I would have cut out the Chow Yun-Fat character altogether, as well as the Shanghai business, and cut most of the extended action scenes in half. I enoyed it for the fun aspects, and the crowd [way more little kids than I expected] loved it. But it was just too long for what it was. I felt like those ships circled that maelstrom for 20 minutes. Oh wait, they did.

Enjoyed the ending. It all kind of came around to the beginning again.

And don't get me wrong, Chow Yun-Fat is hot. I just thought his character was extraneous and dull, and it didn't show off his best attributes. And one thing the series didn't need was another character. I was glad they kind of cleaned slate at the end of this one.

Yeah, what was all that blather about Elizabeth being Calypso? Was it meant to be a red herring? It felt to me like an alternative plotline that should have been consigned to the cutting-room floor but got left in by mistake. About the only thing it achieved was to make me guess Will's ultimate fate...

Not enough sword-fighting in this one, frankly, and it was definitely too long. Also not sure why it was necessary to cut Will's heart out (apart from it being miffic and all that) - I thought that was something Davy Jones did himself to try and stop himself from loving Calypso. Maybe the writers overdid it by trying to combine the "Flying Dutchman" story and the "Achieving Invulnerability by Removing One's Heart/Soul and Hiding It" motif found in so many folktales.

Overall, I enjoyed it - but the first is still the best.

mkcbunny said:

I would have cut out the Chow Yun-Fat character altogether, as well as the Shanghai business,

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Redfox said:

Yeah, what was all that blather about Elizabeth being Calypso? Was it meant to be a red herring?

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I so agree. Chow Yun-Fat was wasted and his character was unnecessary. Besides, they had to go ALL THE WAY to Singapore (and how did they get there?) just to get a ship and a crew? And all they got was a Junk and some lousy Chinese seamen? That just doesn't make sense. And yeah, the thing about Calypso is so dumb, and then when he got killed, what did he do? He made her Captain. Like, what? This guy has chemical imbalance.

As a long-time fan, I'm quite disappointed.

Ahoy me Hearties,

I loved the movie for the entertianment factor but there were a couple of things that got me!! I too would have cut stuff out to have made one movie instead of 2!!!

1) WHy the big build up for the pirates to chosse to fight then they ended up just sitting there at sea fishing while only the black pearl and the main ship from the Trading Co. fought!! WHAT GIVES MAN???? I was looking forward to a major sea battle!!!!

2) The ending was not fully to my liking. I thought that Will's Dad maybe would have taken over the Flying Dutchman by putting the knife through the heart to save his son. However i guess he been dead 'n' all couldn't do that.
WHy didn't Sparrow save Will & Liz instead of just Liz? I guess in the end that had to be the ending coz PofC 2 & 3 were all about D Jones & Calypso and that she never turned up after the 10 years where as Liz did turn up for Will coz of TRUE LOVE!!!! Arrr! Anint that sweet!

Kev

I saw Pirates 3 two days ago and I'm still smiling about it and waiting for the DVD so I can watch it any time I want. ::catches breath:: This will NOT be the most coherent review; I can't talk about this movie without feeling like I'm on a sugar rush. And no, the plot doesn't always make sense (especially if you commit the sin of thinking about it too hard instead of just enjoying the action -- shame on you!), but PoTC 3 was a really fun ride.

I went in expecting a good time. For my money, I got a GREAT time that included lots of explosions and swordfights and romance and humor and surprises and shirtless Johnny Depp -- everything I wanted and more! (What can I say? I'm easy to please!)

I loved the way it ended (the post-credits Easter egg included... so sweet!) because I'm a hopeless romantic like that. And it's so cool that for Jack and Barbossa, things ended up, well, pretty much where they started. *g* I couldn't think of a more fitting conclusion that still leaves room for a fourth movie. I hope they don't make one, though, just because #3 ends things on such a high note.

~JM.

laurenem6 said:

I'm not sure why he didn't try to confront her after she killed Jack.

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He didn't know Elizabeth killed Jack. He thought Elizabeth was in love with Jack and Jack stayed behind to save them... so he was both feeling guilty about letting Jack die and jealous about Elizabeth loving Jack. At the end of the last movie, he just thought Elizabeth was distrought because Jack had died -- but in fact, she was feeling guilty about killing Jack.

At the beginning of this movie, he said that he and Elizabeth hadn't talked for months. He set off to steal the chart, and she went with Barbossa to find Sen Feng (I still don't understand the whole Shanghai part -- seems rather silly to go all the way to Singapore to find a ship).

I haven't seen the movie yet, but after watching a making of the film on tele, I do want to go and watch it, if for nothing else, to finish the trilogy as I've watched the previous two. From the making of pirates tv show, it looks like a spectacular adventure, and I like adventures, so all I need now is for someone to volunteer to go and watch it with me.

laurenem6 said:

Oh, I knew he didn't know she killed him, but still, you think he would confront her about being in love with him or whatever he thought. You just don't give up on a person you've been in love with since you were 12 without even knowing the whole story.

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He's a guy. Some of them are more than a tad dim when it comes to relationships, especially the younger ones. All that testosterone inhibits social skills, you know

[Actually, that's true - testosterone reduces one's ability to deduce emotion from facial expressions. There's scientific proof (blog link, but it's more readable than the source material).]

I agree. I know too many guys (me included) wouldn't say a thing if he thinks his girl is in love with someone else. It's better to suffer alone than to bare the scar for all to see -- how humiliating that would be! Better just to shrug it off.

I saw it this weekend. FAR more entertaining than 2, but 1 is still the best of the lot.

I noticed something odd, I think, in the resolution of the storylines.

SPOILERS!


SPOILERS!


SPOILERS



William Turner: loses everything, except for 1 day every decade.
Elizabeth Turner: loses all three of the men she loves, except for 1 day every decade.
Jack Sparrow: loses the Pearl.
Governor Swan: loses his life.
Admiral guy who loved Elizabeth: loses his life.
Calypso: loses her faith in the one man she loved.
Davy Jones: loses everything.
Barbossa: loses the map to the Fountain of Youth.
East India Trading Company Guy: loses everything.
Chow Yun Fat: loses his life.
Bootstrap Turner: freed from Dutchman, ends up signing on eternally voluntarily.
Pirate with 1-good eye: loses fake eye.

There isn't a happier-seeming sad ending in all of modern film, as near as I can tell. But this is truly a sad ending to this series, and its characters. No one got a happy ending.

It was forty-five minutes too long--very confusing in some parts and a bit contrived too...although it was good but give me a slasher flick and i'm good I'm not all into the Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter but that's just me...

Back to the "task" at hand...I liked Pirates--but I thought there was just too much going on.

Quote Dclary:

William Turner: loses everything, except for 1 day every decade.
Elizabeth Turner: loses all three of the men she loves, except for 1 day every decade.
Jack Sparrow: loses the Pearl.
Governor Swan: loses his life.
Admiral guy who loved Elizabeth: loses his life.
Calypso: loses her faith in the one man she loved.
Davy Jones: loses everything.
Barbossa: loses the map to the Fountain of Youth.
East India Trading Company Guy: loses everything.
Chow Yun Fat: loses his life.
Bootstrap Turner: freed from Dutchman, ends up signing on eternally voluntarily.
Pirate with 1-good eye: loses fake eye.

There isn't a happier-seeming sad ending in all of modern film, as near as I can tell. But this is truly a sad ending to this series, and its characters. No one got a happy ending.



The modern fariytale ending eh!!
K

I was pretty disappointed. There wasn't a lot of character development and the plot didn't really hang together. I do think they've set it up for another possible sequel about the Fountain of Youth, which would be awesome.

I agree with the others who thought the Chow Yung Fat character was extraneous. I swear I think the only reason that whole subplot of him thinking Elizabeth was Calypso was there so Elizabeth's character doesn't seem extraneous.

I was hoping we'd find out the connection between Sparrow and the Beckett guy who runs the East India Trading Company, but that just fizzled out and was never addressed. And it seemed surprisingly easy to get Sparrow back out of Davy Jones' locker.

Oh, and did anyone else think the transformation of Calypso was the lamest special effect in the last twenty years of filmmaking? Come on, she just got big and then turned into a pile of crabs? Who thought that up? My five-year-old nephew could come up with something more interesting and fun to watch. Really, I thought the whole Calypso subplot seemed shoehorned in.

I'm hoping the director's cut will actually be shorter and better edited than the theatrical release. There was some good stuff in this movie, but it was way too long and meandered from subplot to subplot without feeling cohesive.

Waaaaay too long but I did enjoy the final scenes with a little Flynn action between Sparrow and Jones. Call me a sucker for pirate flicks.

I was bored with the Jones/Calypso subplot, who didn't see this one coming? And after she's freed, she makes a little rain? pffffffffffffft Oh yeah, the maelstrom - nice piece of CGI but it went on too long as mentioned above. Something tells me the Armada wouldn't have simply turned around either, besides didn't they have something better to do?

On an upnote, Will finally looked hot as a pirate at the end.

wyntermoon said:

On an upnote, Will finally looked hot as a pirate at the end.

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Lordie, yes--the saving grace of the whole movie!

Summer movies aren't supposed to have plots, meaning, or social redeeming value---none of them do or never will.. alas POTCAWE is a good summer flick..although I like movies where you don't have to think---this one kinda did.

wyntermoon said:

On an upnote, Will finally looked hot as a pirate at the end.

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I have to agree with that. I've never been on the Orlando bandwagon [may Dawno not read this and come after me through the ether], but he finally seemed like he had some substance after dying and coming back with a head scarf.