Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Johnny Depp is back as charismatic Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The story picks up where the lackluster second film ended, with the same characters that we've grown fond of. Captain Barbossa is back miraculously, Will and Elizabeth bicker over anything and everything, and Jack has been sent to Davy Jones locker by the Kraken. If I were to try and explain what this movie was about in detail, I fear this post would turn into a novel. So I will do the best I can to keep this short and understandable. Captain Barbossa, Elizabeth Swann, and William Turner are attempting to get Jack back from Davy Jones locker. But each person has their own plan in mind in what to do with Jack. Meanwhile, Lord Cutler Beckett is attempting to rid the seas of all pirates and pirate conspirators with the help of his new "ally" Davy Jones. The movie quickly becomes bewildering, confusing, convoluted, and every other combination of the word as each character makes a deal with every other character, without knowing that character has made a deal with another character that has it in for the first character. Phew, that was exhausting even to type.

There are so many performances to comment on, both positively and negatively. As usual, Johnny Depp is extremely entertaining as the supposedly self-absorbed pirate Jack Sparrow. His seemingly lackadaisical nature makes him all the more lovable when he turns into the reluctant hero. Bill Nighy can only be described as freakin awesome as the heartless villain Davy Jones. We also get to see the villains softer side as the movie explores his relationship with Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), the woman who scorned him all those years ago. Harris gives a perfect example of how to take a role too seriously. It seemed like she forced everything her character said to sound extremely abysmal and dangerous. You know how you've always got that one friend who is always trying to make things seem more serious than they are? That is basically her entire part. Tom Hollander plays Cutler Beckett, the leader of the East India Company and the main antagonist in the film. If his job was to make the audience hate him, give Hollander an Oscar, because he did a splendid job of that. But one could not speak of bad performances without mentioning the following name...Orlando Bloom. My oh my. I'm officially convinced the only reason he was even allowed in this series was because women believe his face was carved by angels. But watching this movie, you can actually see that he is a terrible actor. The level of his voice doesn't change no matter what he's doing, his face doesn't move, and it is impossible for him to express any emotion whatsoever. This is painfully clear whenever he and Keira Knightley are on screen together. And yes, painful is the best adjective to describe it. To give you an idea of what it was like having to watch these two supposedly lovestruck characters interact, go outside, and stare the side of your house. Just go right up to it, and look forward. Now, stay that way for 2 hours. That's it. That's what it was like, hell, it's what I would rather do, than watch Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley act together. Every other performance aside, Geoffrey Rush dominates all as Captain Barbossa. Even with Johnny Depp to compete with, Rush's screen presence is phenomenal as he epitomizes what many think a real pirate should be like. I'm fairly certain the reason the second movie was so bad was because of "lack of Barbossa".
I could go on and on, but my fingers have grown tired, so I will try to wrap it up. I recommend this film not for the performances or for the plot, but because of the final 30 minutes. The Pirates series is capped off with an epic final battle that is sure to stun and amaze you, as it did me. I could not imagine a more fitting ending. Overall, this movie had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. If anything, just watch the last half hour. You don't even need to know the plot to appreciate it. It's quite wonderful. My rating(7/10)