Pirates of the Caribbean, At world's end

Pirates 3.

Wow, i must love punishment. I mean, watching a sequel is pretty much asking for crappiness anyways, but why is it that the third movie is invariably always the worst? Godfather 3, Spiderman 3... Pirates 3. It's not like it can't be done well; i liked Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was quite exceptional. But i digress, Pirates of the Caribbean was an ok series and, maybe it's just me, but i actually liked the first two. However, the third one falls way short of this mark.

I guess the main thing that's wrong with this movie is that it sort of muscles through the plot devices as if subtly is out of fashion. The movie starts in Singapore (which the heroes go to sans boat, apparently), then goes to somewhere in the antarctic and then ends up in the afterworld, all in the span of about 20 minutes. Even the scenes in the underworld where Jack Sparrow has himself and his ship rescued make no sense. At one point, a veritable sea of rock-crabs wash jack and the black pearl back to the shorelines of the afterlife. But, where these rock-crabs come from and why they're helping him is left as a complete mystery (at least for now) and you, as the viewer, just have to accept that this is how things unfolded.

The other thing wrong with this movie in general is that they seem to be struggling to keep alive all the characters of the previous movies. while the film predominately focuses on the crew of the Black Pearl, we are shown brief snippets of Norrington and Elizabeth's father before both are quickly dispatched after what must've been 10 minutes of total screen time combined.

I guess it's ok that they killed them off. After all, they really did serve no purpose and it would've been distracting if they'd not been included at all. However, to see such major characters from the previous films just "vanish" really does them no credit, particularly since Norrington, a master swordsman by his own rite, was killed by a lowly member of the Flying Dutchman without so much as having a harsh word thrown.

Meanwhile, the film sticks to the previous formula (if you can call it that) of having a completely new villain, this time filled by the leader of the East India Trading Corporation. I forget what his name is, but the plot is that he has Davey Jones' heart and hence commands the Flying Dutchman to do his biddings. As far as badguy's go, he's not bad (as in, decent), but his plan is so nonsensical that even the writers felt embarrassed by it. As a result, the film's major focus is on constant battles between the Flying Dutchman and her crew and the Black Pearl and hers. By the end of the movie, you're so detached from the actual plot of the film that you don't care that it doesn't seem to actually resolve itself.

While it's true that the action scenes eclipse the plot, it's not because they were spectacular. In fact, compared with the previous movies, they kind of suck. Where were the epic sword fights with 2 or more combatants that keep switching sides? Those were the best parts, damnit! And this movie didn't have them!

Another thing that falls short is the comedy. The previous films had loads of comedic scenes in a variety of fashions from the visual comedy of seeing Jack on a shish-kebab to the concept humour of Jack freaking out about Elizabeth burning all the rum to make a smoke signal. However, the best this film can do is a delusional jack seeing dozens of himself manning all sorts of rolls. At first it's funny, but by about the third time, it's played out and you just want to see something different for a change.

All in all, the movie itself's not horrible, but it's not good either. It's definitely far weaker than its previous installments and while it does end on a note that leaves it open to sequels, you find yourself hoping that they just let this franchise die. But then, if writers knew when to kill the bastard offspring they produce, we wouldn't all be watching the 19th season (or whatever we're at) of the Simpsons, now would we?