'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'—Review

Before I start this review, I'm just going to state that this movie should have been called something else. Something along the lines of, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Invasion of the Confusing Subplots. That seems to be more appropriate because this movie is extremely messy. As a kid, I thought the first Pirates of the Caribbean film was the greatest film I had ever seen, and believe it or not, in my eyes, it still holds that title. So naturally, when the sequels were announced, I got extremely hyped. Because of my love of the first movie, I was able to enjoy both Dead Man's Chest and At World's End quite a lot when these movies first released. However, after ten years (I had to stop writing for a second to let that sink in), of watching many other films and receiving my Bachelor's Degree in Film, revisiting this movie is nowhere near as enjoyable as it was ten years ago. Not because it's a horrendous movie or anything like that, it's only insulting because of my love for the first movie and how this film tarnished its legacy.

This film, simply put, forgot what Pirates of the Caribbean was all about. Ask yourself this, why do people love the first Pirates of the Caribbean film? To me, it's because I loved these characters. Jack Sparrow was one of the most unique and lovable characters I had ever seen, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann were oozing with charisma and charm and Captain Barbossa was terrifying as the villain. Then you take these characters and throw them into a great swashbuckling adventure full of pirate ships, sword fights, and cursed pirate treasure. So naturally, it became a huge hit.

The sequels, however, and this movie in particular, tries to take a simple story about evil pirates lifting a curse and turn it into an epic opera filled with gods bound in human form, 9 pieces of 8 (I still don't know what those even are) some all mighty pirate group that has a code which all pirates abide too, and old 18th century British naval politics. Ask a kid what they think when they hear the word, "Pirate" and I can guarantee you they will say things like, "hidden treasure, pirate ships, tropical islands, and lots of pirates yelling, 'Yarg.'" And while did get a ton of screaming pirates in this movie, this film throws these same characters we loved into a story where instead of being entertained and sucked into the story, we are spending more time trying to rid our heads of a migraine this plot gives us. It even makes you look back on the second movie and think of how simple that movie was (hint: it was still confusing). Not only are these stories confusing, but they are boring.

I wanted to shut this movie off when re-watching it again. Compare that to the first film where I didn't want the movie to end. The main reason for this is because if your movie isn't going to have a single storyline, you're going to make sure that the end goal is the same and that there is a theme throughout all of them. The most recent example I can think of is Avengers: Infinity War. That movie had lots of characters and lots of storylines, but they are all working towards the same goal. Here, we have Will Turner wanting to betray Jack Sparrow to free his father, you have Elizabeth Swann being mistaken for a pirate goddess aboard a Chinese pirate ship, Jack Sparrow who is constantly thinking about his revenge on Davy Jones, and Barbossa who wants all the pirates to reunite to fight the East India Trading Company. All of which was after a whole plan to go to Davy Jones' Locker to rescue Jack Sparrow. Sure, all of these storylines intertwine with each other and often cross paths, but nobody seems to be going towards one goal. Every character is trying to cross one another to get their way. It's almost like the film said, "Here, pick your favorite character and that's the story you are supposed to root for." Not only that, but they make the decision of bringing back Barbossa as an ally rather than a villain. Now, I am not against the idea of the villain coming back in a sequel as an ally in every movie, however, to me, Barbossa was too menacing and too great of a matchup to Jack Sparrow for me to take him seriously as an ally.

The villain role now is shared between Lord Beckett and Davy Jones...again. Just more and more things to keep track of in this movie. Worst of all, none of these plot lines are able to suck you into the story and create an emotional connection. I wanted Will Turner to save Elizabeth Swann from the Black Pearl, and I even wanted Jack Sparrow to escape or defeat Davy Jones. Here, I didn't care what happened. Sure, I wanted everybody to get Jack Sparrow back to life, but once they accomplish it, my investment is completely gone. Therefore, when the exciting action finale is happening with all the great pirate stuff we loved from the first movie, I don't have any emotional attachment to care.

That is where this movie falls flat. Instead of creating a simple story that allows us to know the characters and understand what they want which in turn leads to us being invested in the story and the big action sequences, we get a convoluted messy entanglement of many different uninteresting stories where we don't get a chance to get attached any of them. Therefore, when the big action sequences come, and there really is only one at the end, you're already done with the movie.

So although this film still has Jack Sparrow doing fun pirate things and a pretty good looking final battle, I'd say stick with the first movie and don't even bother with the sequels. In my eyes, a trilogy can be made or broken with its final movie. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End did not give the ending that this trilogy deserved. As for the other two attempts to re-start this franchise, stay tuned!