Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Tying Up Loose Ends

By: DThompson | in: Movies |

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

After a particularly daring and piratey escape which comes in the middle of the film, Lord Beckett, evil emissary of the East India Trading Company, is asked of Cap’n Jack Sparrow, “Do you think he plans it all out, or makes it up as he goes along?” You could easily ask the same of the screen writers, producers and director of “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End” As part three in a series, the latest Pirates film has multiple tasks to perform. Obviously it must be fast-paced, action packed and entertaining, but also the movie is burdened with tying up the myriad plot complexities of the first two pictures. This task has seen many a film walk the proverbial plank but it’s not always the case that “Part 3” is the cursed pirate gold of cinema. “Back To The Future 3” was a perfect example of how to achieve this difficult entertainment / explaination ballancing act and Pirates 3, shackled with a plot as complicated as the twists in the pirate characters’ mangy beards, comes close to matching it.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Pirates 2 had a positively expressionistic beginning, almost surreal in its collage of individual unconnected shots that only made sense after you’d viewed them as a whole. It was a daring and original way to start a summer blockbuster and though I was hoping for more of the same it was not to be. Pirates 3 has an extremely linear, if exceptionally grim, opening salvo. It’s almost as if the departure of Cap’n Jack Sparrow has cast a pall upon the world. I mean, for a supposedly “up” summer movie this is a VERY unhappy beginning. The scallywag of a villain is completely ascendant, liberties are pillaged, every pirate in the world, not just the Caribbean, is in hiding and our young lovers are on the verge of a permanent split.
Light only peeks in when we wash up on the desolate shores of World’s End. Not exactly the place you’d expect to find light, but it is where you’ll find Cap’n Jack and along with him comes light, and a lighter, occasionally surreal tone. Maybe the seeming lack of humor comes from a change in the characters. Most of the laughs in Pirates 2 were derived from the morally upright hero and heroine’s outrage as they continually mistook Cap’n Jack Sparrow’s likeability for a sense of morality, or even a vague concern for anyone other than Cap’n Jack Sparrow. With Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann basically signing on as pirates by the third voyage this dichotomy is sorely missed. Not to say the movie is bereft of wit, but merely to indicate that it’s not as amusing as its predecessors.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

The pirates, much like the Spartans in “300”, are rather improbably made to represent “freedom” when they probably should be representing base greed and sociopathic self-interest. These watery freedom fighters are again paired against the East India Trading Company, which is less improbably cast as an evil force of exploitation without conscience, desire for human rights or anything else that stands in the way of the Company making as much money as it can despite the fathomless ocean of human misery it leaves behind.

A number of famous guest faces show up throughout the film but all remain guests, none attaining the stature of a continuing character. Chow Yun Fat plays a pirate lord who lives in a sauna and is given to shouting “More steam!” whenever he gets upset. In fact, there are more pirate captains in this film than you can shake a wooden leg at. By my count there are at least twelve pirate captains plus one British admiral. Keith Richards shows up as one of the crew of Pirate Lords, in what might be the film’s funniest moment, to lay down an enormous book of Byzantine “Pirate Law”. I suppose you’d need it in a world where there are as many pirate captains as regular ol’ pirates.
From prow to stern Pirates 3 gives you everything you could possibly want out of a pirate film. There’s action, including sword fights as well as musket play and great, crashing, wood splintering broadsides of cannon fire. Love is dished up, with the impossibly good looking Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. The screenwriters weave a great tale of excitement and adventure in exotic locales featuring stormy seas, crashing waves and monstrous creatures. What more could you ask for? The film cruises along at a fair clip working in homages to old Errol Flynn films, “Reservoir Dogs”, Sergio Leone westerns and even staging what has to be cinema’s first action wedding. By the end all those pesky loose ends are tied up and a few new ones are created, just in case you feel like paying to go to Pirates 4, 5 and 6.

VERDICT: Overly-complicated but action packed.
PIRATE VERDICT: Aye, heave to Pirates 3, me hearties!

One of the fun things about writing this review , aside from working in every nautical reference I could think of, was that I got to constantly write “Cap’n” Jack Sparrow. If this was a review of, say, a war film I could never have gotten away with referring to an officer as “Cap’n” Frank Jones. Maybe Pirates were a force for freedom after all.

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Posted on May 29, 2007

Comments

2 Responses to “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Tying Up Loose Ends”

ipodwheel @ Auto Parts for Brains on May 29th, 2007 9:10 am

Loved the movie. Just don’t forget the signature few second clip at the end of the credits. That pretty much sums everything up.

This third movie makes the two previous films complete. A great way of tying up all the loose ends left by the prior two films. Though I must say that Calypso turning into a giant was unexpected and not something I liked (reminded me of the 50 foot amazon movies) the movie as a whole was a blast.

DThompson on May 29th, 2007 10:44 am

ipodwheel - Interestingly, a good friend who saw the movie (and really HATED it) said Calypso doing her 50 foot woman thing was something he thought was great, until she turned into the bazillion crabs thing. I think he was hoping for a scantily dressed, enormous woman to go wade rampaging through the British fleet! You have to admit, it might have been amusing.
Pirates 3 is not a perfect film and I think most will find one thing or another to dislike, but, on the whole, the movie delivers.