PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
Originally slated for release hot upon the heels of the mega-blockbuster Dead Man's Chest, director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, The Mexican, the other Pirateses) wisely decided to stall a bit. This film was shot concurrently with the second film, and Gore listened not to the woes of other directors such as Robert Zemeckis, who nearly crumbled under the pressure of filming two big genre entries simultaneously. (Peter Jackson is apparently the only guy insane enough to survive and even thrive during such conditions) And much like Zemeckis' second and third Back To The Future outings, the final two acts of the Pirates trilogy melted into one another without a solid ending for Dead Man's Chest.
As much as I enjoyed the first two films in the series, I admit that I can't recall ever watching them again on home video. So without umpteen viewings of Dead Man's Chest under my belt, it's a bit of a shock to the system jumping into the newest installment while simultaneously digging through the coffers of my memories from 2006. Then there's the ever-disconcerting sensation that all of this action is built on just a silly song and a heaping pile of wax and electronic servos. With this in mind, I began watching At World's End with the question in mind of "With two long films already completed, how are they going to dredge up almost three hours of material for this one?"
The answer is by focusing more on each of the main character's personal journeys. In Dead Man's Chest, it became apparent that the characters of Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) were essentially window dressing to Johnny Depp's rum-addled pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. In At World's End however, their roles are thankfully expanded so that both characters truly become integral elements to the Pirates Mythos. Indeed, in stark contrast to the other films, Captain Jack doesn't make his appearance for quite some time.
What does begin the film is a montage of piratic folk and their cohorts being hung en masse, surely one of the most violent openings to a true Disney feature I can think of. They even snap the neck of a young boy (after placing him atop a wooden box so his head is high enough to slip through the noose) who leads the other doomed citizens in a despair-laden shanty tune. Apparently once sung, this song resonates in pirate treasure around the globe, alerting the golden-toothed hordes that ‘the man' is out to shut them down for good.
Geoffrey Rush does return as Captain Barbossa, though don't expect an immediate explanation for his resurrection at the finish of the last film. (There is a brief explanation later from the Greek Chorus characters of Pintel (Lee Arenberg) and Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook), still loitering around and lending comedic relief when needed) His journey begins in Singapore, as Elizabeth Swann accompanies him on a visit to the scarred pirate lord Sao Feng (Hong Kong legend Chow Yun Fat, unfortunately not receiving as much screen time as I had initially hoped). Luckily, the rest of the Black Pearl crew and thickly-accented Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris) are also at hand for an action setup reminiscent of the multi-party revolution early on in Return of the Jedi. (And on another Lucas-related note, a boat ride under a bridge with spiraling Chinese firecrackers had me wondering if the scene was an homage to the Do Lung Bridge segment from Apocalypse Now.)
Barbossa and Swann are looking for two things – a nifty navigation chart with shifting circular inlays and a fully manned ship. Feng is less than willing to give up these items once he learns that it is all for the benefit of his nemesis, Captain Jack. Jack is still languishing in the depths of Davy Jones' locker, which for the purpose of this film is a self-guided hell which would feel at home in the wackier works of director Terry Gilliam. Depp is introduced playing numerous versions of Sparrow, as the imprisoned Captain has apparently gone mad and has begun hallucinating multiple incarnations of himself to helm the beached Black Pearl vessel. If this weren't weird enough, there's a segment with skipping stones that transform into a legion of crabs that gather beneath the ship so that it can ‘sail' upon the waves of their rocky bodies.
In order to gain access to Sparrow's realm of insanity, Barbossa and crew are forced to literally sail off the end of the earth - a massive waterfall leading straight to oblivion. Once face to face with their beloved raggedy Captain, the crew try to convince the man that they aren't manifestations of his distressed mind. Even when he does return to a semblance of normalcy, occasionally little Jack Sparrow replicas climb out of his hair to engage in devil/angel moral debates.
The film then settles into a long section of dialogues and double crosses, setting up the final battle between the pirates and the East India Trading Company. The latter group, led once again by Tom Hollander's Lord Cutler Beckett, have now gained control of Davy Jones' barnacle-encrusted ghost ship The Flying Dutchman, through possession of his extricated heart (kept safely under lock and key in a wooden chest). Beckett is anxious to remove all pirates from the world, thus the issuance of his decree declaring even the mildest association with their ilk a mortal crime.
Bill Nighy returns as the tentacled monstrosity Jones, and the CG animators responsible for his octopus-like visage deserve endless credit for preserving his performance and allowing the actor's facial movements to drive the drama even after he was replaced with pixels. We learn that Jones and Tia Dalma have shared a stormy (literally) romantic past, and thus the sideline sorceress gets an amped up story arc as a sea goddess trapped inside the body of a mortal woman.
Will Turner is still wrapped up in his desire to free his father (Stellan Skarsgard's starfish-faced “Bootstrap” Bill Turner) from indentured servitude on the Dutchman. The romance between Will and Elizabeth is put on the back burner for most of the film, a repercussion of the naughty kiss shared between Sparrow and Swann in the previous movie.
Meanwhile, Swann becomes steeped further and further in the world of piracy until she finds herself one of their kind. She's also distraught over the sudden appearance of her father (Jonathan Pryce) amidst a flotilla of lost souls on their way to the hereafter. A trip to the pirate kingdom of Shipwreck Cove yields an interesting Pirate Summit in which all of the nine pirate lords cough up their ‘Pieces of Eight' and vote on their course of action. It's here that the much publicized cameo by Keith Richards as Sparrow's father appears, and while it was indeed overhyped, his brief screen time is entertaining enough.
Since a lot of the running time is focused on dialogue much of it has the need to be as funny as possible, and thankfully the script succeeds on that front. Sparrow earns a lot of chuckles as expected (though some of his mumbling diatribes verge on the edge of incoherency), as do Pintel & Ragetti, Captain Barbossa and the rest of the Black Pearl crew. The diminutive spider monkey gets a huge laugh as he brandishes a tiny pistol and inserts himself into a Mexican standoff. The rest of the script is devoted to a whirling dervish of a plot in which Swann, Turner, Sparrow, Barbossa, Jones & Beckett all bounce their allegiances around like a furious game of Pinball with a pile of extra balls in play.
As always, the visual dividends yielded by the combination of Verbinski and director of photography Dariusz Wolski are outstanding. The film is drenched in great colors, from the deep oceanic greens and blues to the amber glow of torches and candles. There are some brilliant shots on display, most notably a great sequence with a starry night sky reflecting on the surface of the calm ocean surface. The Pirate movies have always been an interesting amalgam of the realistic seafaring style of Master & Commander spiked with the fantasy-driven escapism of the Harryhausen Sinbad films.
Said fantasy elements are done with an abundance of imagination, which makes these films so entertaining despite their overplotting and numerous nonsensical moments. The visual verve of the Pearl and Dutchman doing battle amidst the tortured water walls of a whirlpool was a masterstroke that saved the film from a boring retread of countless other filmic skirmishes at sea. The film is rife with such welcome insanity, such as the moment when the crew of the Pearl repeatedly run from port to starboard and back only to submerge the vessel in anticipation of a magical transportation at sunset. There's also the intricately staged fight scene in which three characters stage an impromptu wedding in between sword blows. And of course there's the gonzo image of the Pearl sailing over the crest of a sand dune with Sparrow standing on the mast with the same pose he used on his sinking dinghy in the first film.
It's nuts. It barely makes sense. It's over the top in every sense of the word. But the imagination of the filmmakers combined with the quirky performances of its cast vault it above the rank of obnoxious-but-entertaining summer fare. Supposedly this is the last entry in the series, but they do set up the seeds of another adventure at the finale (speaking of which, make sure to stick around for the end of the credits for one final scene), but if they do make another one I'll be there with a ruffled shirt on. Though I propose they do a mash up and have Depp perform dual roles as Jack Sparrow and Hunter S. Thompson. Call it Pirates of the Caribbean: Fear and Loathing in Shipwreck Cove.