Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - 6/10

This marks the review completion for our first trilogy and, unfortunately, it's a bit of a whimper. I was close to giving the film a 5/10, but ultimately there is still enough high quality in some areas that it would feel like punishing the film for being a poor bookend. With that said, a lot of people seem to enjoy this film despite its flaws, so I wonder how many of my gripes are a product of comparison vice objectivity. 

1. Acting 

I felt that the acting here was the weaker of the three films, but still features strong performances from Geoffrey Rush, Johnny Depp, and Bill Nighy. As will probably be the case for a lot of the categories here - my objectivity is shot, so the more than serviceable performances from the rest of the cast suffer from what has come before this. I don't think the script or editing did the cast any favors either. The saturated plot requires a great deal of exposition and a lot of the more drawn out acting moments seemed to end up on the cutting room floor.

2. Cinematography 

 Again, in comparison to the previous installments, AWE is a downturn in terms of quality. In particular, the vibrancy of photography is much more subdued here. Now, some of that may be intentional as this is the more 'serious' conclusion of the series, but it was more than visual tone - the scene-scapes feel less inspired. 

The action also seemed subpar - especially in the opener. The effects like explosions look extra fake, the sets don't feel as integrated, and the lighting is bland. The tone also feels off, as if the film lacks a clear identity. Much of the runtime varies between a version of the lighter swashbuckling nature of the other films, and then rapidly pivots to a duller and de-saturated 'serious' aesthetic. 

3. Production/Costume Design 

Unlike previous installments, the sets feel much less lived in and more obviously fake. The opener in Singapore felt very cramped and 'set like'. The real world locales also feel like a rehash of previous installments but that could just be because there isn't as much variety in tropical beach vistas as one might think. And the scenes that took place on the various boats felt less distinct and less real. For instance, the scene where the crew is traveling through the arctic environment to rescue Jack features a close up of two pirates sitting on the edge of the boat completely flat - the lack of any motion highlights very obviously that it's just two characters sitting in front of a bluescreen background and broke immersion. 

The costumes get a little breath of air from including the various pirate factions from different regions of the world, but everything else is largely the same. 

On a more positive note - I really enjoyed the scenes for Davy Jones' locker. The various Jacks, the desert/salt flat locale, the aesthetics of the void. I think it all worked very well.

4. Writing 

What really holds this film back for me is the writing. The film feels like one long improv where they just were throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck and had no idea how they wanted to end things. The end product feels very convoluted due to trying to juggle too many characters and too many story lines. It devolves into a constant barrage of double crosses on top of double crosses and just more and more exposition. 

If I'm trying to be more specific, I think one reason for the convolution is that the writers really seemed to want each character to have an arc, but were either disinterested or unable to synchronize any of it. What you are left with is Jack wanting to replace Davy Jones so he can live forever and a series of scenes/partnerships to make that happen. Elizabeth's whole goal seems to be rescue Jack and then, once that wraps up, needs an excuse to stay in the plot so they give her a revenge type plot due to the death of her father. Will is trying to rescue Jack... except actually he's trying to save his father... except actually he's trying to save Elizabeth... except actually like 5 other things. Barbosa is on a quest to remain alive. Tia Dalma was helping save Jack - no wait now all of a sudden she is Calypso and wants to reunite with Davy Jones- wait actually she wants to kill him. Norrington is on a redemption quest that is just a complete undoing of where he ended up at the end of the second film. Beckett want to control the sea? Or kill all the Pirates? Or something else. It's too much plot without any legwork - it's all just vocalized. And the characterization suffers for that reason too - like was living forever really Jack's big motivation all along or did they just decide that all of a sudden because they decided the Dutchman plot line needed bigger stakes?

5. Sound Design 

Hans Zimmer's bombastic and wonderful score is back - but the updates feel a bit uninspired when considering the first two installments. 

Nevertheless, the finale in particular is served well by the energetic integration of sound and action raising the levels of excitement to see the conclusion of the story.

6. Editing 

Having spent some time watching the deleted scenes for this film, I see that there was a more thoughtful and slow movie that was sacrificed to minimize the already bloated runtime. It's a shame because some of those deleted scenes had some great acting and helped flesh out the convoluted plot a bit. With that said, I don't think adding scenes back in or any other editing tricks were going to help here. Perhaps the only thing that would have satisfied me would be cutting some of the superfluous story lines to create a more focused/coherent film.

7. Visual Effects 

This is probably where the series still shines brightly. The VFX team did wonderful work throughout this film. Davy Jones and his crew look as good as ever - maybe even more polished than its predecessor since they really didn't shy away from showing him in a wide variety of settings, including bright sunshine. 

The final battle scenes are also extremely well executed. The epic fight scene in the middle of a whirlpool with a full storm drenching all the characters was a fantastic achievement. There was a massive amount of integration with all of the stunt work going on and it all seems flawless. 

Also, Beckett's death is one of the most legendary deaths for a subpar villain I have ever scene. The level of detail going on is amazing and the slow-mo nature mixed with early and complex particle simulations is superb. 

8. Originality or Strength of Adaptation 

As the closing film for a trilogy, AWE does not get the benefit of originality nor is it strong in comparison to its predecessor. At least it took a big swing and stayed within its fantasy swashbuckling niche that few films have ever sought to challenge since.

9. Stunt Coordination 

Once again, I think this film falls short when compared to its counterparts. It is certainly ambitious at times in terms of scale, but not necessarily for the better. The more focused story driven fight scenes of the first two films is replaced by large numbers of pirates swinging swords in an incomprehensible fashion. The one standout that I really remember is Jack and Davy Jones' sword fight.

10. Direction

Gore Verbinski is back again to close out the trilogy and manages to keep the ship from completely sinking. With that said, this film is much messier than his other efforts.

Legacy/Final Thoughts

Studios love to film large budget sequels like these back-to-back in order to save time and production costs. However, that puts a huge amount of pressure on the director and various department heads to execute in a very precise manner over a very elongated session of principal photography. For that reason, I fault Gore Verbinski and his team much less for my perceived failures of this film. Instead, the decision to shoot back-to-back without a finished script clearly was a mistake in terms of quality. The very convoluted story and character arcs feel like such a letdown because I truly love the first two films of this series. 

I forget if the subsequent Pirate films made it onto the watchlist, but I do remember feeling that they too failed to re-capture the magic at the heart of the original. But like I said, there seems to be a large audience that seems to really love this film and believe the trilogy to be near perfection - so maybe I just don't get it.