Taken me awhile to get around to the write up but I have now also re watched At World's End the until recently final installment in the Pirates series. The good news is I did actually enjoy it more than I thought I would, but it still does have it's problems.
Taking in the rescue of Jack from the afterlife, a trip to Singapore, the Pirate's council, Will's quest to save his father, the return of Barbossa, the tragedy behind Davy Jones, a sea goddess and a fight against the oh so evil East India Trading Company on of the film's problems is at points there just too much going on.
It's a strange one really, Dead Man's chest suffers from there not being enough ideas as it essentially reworks a sizable amount of the first film whilst this time round it feels like there are far too many ideas being squeezed in. This is at least partly how we end up with the nigh on three hour running time.
A running time that could easily be cut down. The early jaunt to Singapore doesn't really serve a lot of purpose and whilst they are well realised Jack's sequences inside the locker of Davy Jones don't really move things forward. In fact the whole effort to rescue he seems to fall a little flat when it turns out he's almost rescued himself by the time he gets there.
Elsewhere things are padded out by the increasingly daft constant double crossing and deal making that goes on between Tom Hollander's Lord Becket and basically everyone else in the cast. A loyalty change every few minutes soon gets tedious.
I guess whilst I'm on the negatives I'll mention the complete waste of the Kraken. The best thing in the previous film by a country mile is here killed of screen and dismissed as something out of it's time. You suspect the writers couldn't think of a suitable way to deal with it on screen.
And finally after doing fairly well to ground the series in the first two parts this time around Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom fail to convince the audience of either their romance or apparent status as highly skilled pirate types.
Knightly in particular runs aground when asked to deliver what is meant to be a stirring pre-battle speech to rouse the crew. It comes across so poorly that it's almost funny but sadly just remains rather rubbish. As for Orlando, it seems for some reason this time around they've merely asked him to hang around and look as pretty as possible.
Right, I know I said I enjoyed more than I expected so I'd better get to the parts I liked.
Firstly it's in the smaller comic moments that film works well and regains some of the sense of fun present in the first outing. Like Jack asking if anyone came to rescue him because they liked him or the bickering between Jack and Barbossa over who gets to be captain.
In fact Rush's presence as Barbossa helps a lot whenever he's on screen, manging to ham it up horribly whilst looking like he's playing straight next to Depp. Credit though has to go to Depp too who does a strong comedic touch when given the chance.
Although I do think they try to cram too much it is nice to see new ideas and the journey back from the afterlife is one of the strongest sections, in particular the recently dead sailing silently in the opposite direction - a sea of lamps in the dark. Also the story of Davy Jones is quite well played out even though making him effectively a lackey for Beckett seems a poor choice.
The final showdown also has it moments (although the Calypso storyline goes nowhere) and could have had a classic scene with the mid battle marriage if not for some poor editing, a dodgy sense of timing and general lack of conviction.
So whilst I did enjoy more than I expected, I expected it to bore the tears out of me and I think looking at the above it's safe to it's not moved up too far in estimation. Essentially it has a few amusing moments and few nice ideas but these unfortunately are adrift in a sea of narrative dead-ends (can anyone tell me what Jack actually wants by the end?), over indulgence and a reliance on two main characters who shed any sense of screen presence.
Safe to say Curse Of The Black Pearl remains the only entry that's really worth watching again.
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