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From The Times

May 24, 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Kevin Maher

12A, 168mins

Just how many Jack Sparrows can one person take? This seems to be the most pressing question that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End asks of the luckless viewer. For here, in the movie’s most emblematic scene, a mere 35 minutes into a harrowingly long 168-minute screen experience, we are reintroduced to the franchise mascot, the loveable cockerney seadog Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Only this time, because of plot points too vague to comprehend, the movie presents us with not one, but 20, even 30 identical Captain Jacks, all of whom are played by a strangely dead-eyed Depp, all of whom galumph about blankly on the poop deck of the beached Black Pearl frigate, and all of whom are grating testaments to corporate entertainment’s unfathomable ability to transform creative originality into anodyne excess.

Indeed, to anyone who’s seen other so-called “three-quels” such as X-Men 3, Spider-Man 3 or The Matrix Revolutions, there’s something depressingly familiar about the bloated overkill that defines every aspect of At World’s End. It’s as if the director Gore Verbinski and the writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio wilfully and brutally crashed Pirates 1 and Pirates 2 together and simply left the resulting incoherent bricolage on screen and called it Pirates 3. Thus we are duly treated to an increasingly crowded roll-call return of practically every previous Pirates character, including the salty Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), the slithery Captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the effete Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport), as well as our trusty central threesome – straight-faced Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), squeaky Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and, of course, doughty Captain Jack.

Never mind that Captain Jack was effectively dead at the end of the last movie. For we discover, very quickly, that the metaphysical laws in the Piratesuniverse are entirely malleable while, equally, narrative causality in the screenplay is entirely optional. Which helps when your incredible plot is trying to depict a ragtag bunch of protagonists racing from a steam-room scene in Singapore to the Arctic Circle to the Underworld and back to the Caribbean for a winner-takes-all final-reel battle against the evil corporate overlords in the East India Trading Company.

Yet, unfortunately, the same lack of narrative sense makes it utterly impossible to care for these protagonists, no matter how noble their fight. Why did Will and Elizabeth go to Singapore in the first place, other than to have a big set-piece punch-up on a nicely dressed soundstage? And why, for that matter, was the Singaporean pirate Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) introduced at all, considering that he does nothing for the story other than to add some superfluous international demographic cachet?

And while we’re at it, why does every anonymous corporate blockbuster have to sport some pseudo-spiritual anticorporate “message”? Here the East India Trading Company is the sinister face of modernity that’s crushing the freedoms and the mystical way of life signified by, er, piracy. Why can’t the studios stop lying to themselves and deal with their own hegemonic stranglehold on the entertainment industry? And why, for that matter, doesn’t At World’s Endconclude with Captain Jack sailing off into the sunset at the head of the East India Trading Company, flogging Captain Jack dolls, key rings, action figures and chess sets, like his parent company Disney is so keen to do?

Of course, the Pirates movies are all about Depp’s screen-chewing Captain Jack. An equally-billed co-star in the first film, Depp has become the all-important Pooh-Bah for parts 2 and 3. Strange, then, that his screen charm should so clearly diminish in direct proportion to his increasing status within the series. The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote about the effects of mass reproduction on originality. He referred to the death of an object’s artistic “aura” after it has been copied ad infinitum. And certainly, Depp’s Jack in At World’s End, a copy of a copy of a Keith Richards pastiche, is as lifeless as anything the actor has ever put on screen. The unfunny doppelgängers only remind us, unfortunately, of how formulaic and mechanical this once inspired turn has become.

Incidentally, the movie’s much-vaunted Keith Richards cameo is thankfully underplayed (he looks as if he’s just stepped, or slipped, off stage) and contains one of the smartest exchanges (or should that be, one of the three smart exchanges?) in an otherwise comically decrepit film. Elsewhere sturdy character actors such as Rush and Nighy do their best with dialogue that is concerned almost exclusively with betrayals and backstabbing, while Bloom delivers classic hardwood heroics and Knightley gets lost in prognathous poses and Veruca Salt petulance.

Ultimately, however, the real Pirates story is the cruel Faustian pact that heavy-hitting actors such as Depp seem to strike when they join the blockbusting fray. He may have snagged a rumoured $30 million for his work on the sequels, but where has his kudos gone? Where is his trademark credibility? And will he now be remembered, in Oscar tributes and career montages, as Captain Jack for the rest of his professional life? It seems likely.

I don't know why anyone would see this film in any country. And it's extremely flattering to Hollywood that you think they had an idea only 10 years ago. Maybe 35, 40 years ago, depending on how you define "Hollywood."

Kirsten, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

I couldn't agree more with the author of this article. This was effectively the worst movie I've seen. The plot made no sense whatsoever, the characters were dull, backstabbing after backstabbing after backstabbing, proposing and getting married in midst of fighting off other pirates and after that returning to Sparrow and Mr Tentacles on the mast (how the hell can they be fighting up there for like 15 minutes?) made absolutely no sense. Incoherent hollywood "spectacle" with about 4 visually appealing scenes is not something I would wish upon today's audience.

Maja, Antwerp, Belgium

As my mate kev, says "get a life". It's a popcorn munching kids film for Cliff's sake (and a quite entertaining one). "Pretentious moi?" I certainly think so.

Paul, Liverpool, UK

Well I don't know whIch 'film' most of these people watched, but when I watched the film in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and the Cinema was packed. With kids, mum's and dad's, teenagers, and pensioners. They had all turned up to see a 'pirate film'! The kids screamed and shouted, laughed and cried and enjoyed a really good fun film, I thought it was the best of the three, The audience all came out chatting, laughing and discussing the best bits of the film, sometimes peopke try and read too much into film's. Why can't they let their hair down and just enjoy!

Liz Vasey, Scarborough, North Yorkshire UK

unfortunately i do agree that Depp lost alot of his energy but this was apparent in the second film too. However, i agree with Caetlin- though i was disappointed, what the hell, just enjoy it and stop reading so much into it.

Rach Burrows, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

I hear in China Pirates of the Caribbean has been censored maybe because it shows Chinese in a bad light! Get real China .. it a movie about pirates .. they're not meant to be good guys .. hystericaly funny in my opinion!

Michael, Wuhan, P R China

I hear in China Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - At World's End has been censored maybe because it shows Chinese in a bad light! Get real China .. it's a movie about pirates .. they're not meant to be good guys .. hystericaly funny in my opinion!

Michael, Wuhan, P R China

This was beyond overkill, I was waiting for a character to use moves from the Matrix as this movie compiled enough action sequences for nine movies from every genre. I was bored to tears and my eyes hurt trying to follow the action, useless dialouge, and CG effects. Thank God I was at a drive in movie theater I was able to sleep for about 45 minutes and had no problem waking up and without missing any necessary information. My children who were fans of both 1 and 2 and excited about 3 immediately went to sleep. I was not shockingly disappointed because I was not so fond of 2 as everyone was. I will miss those nearly three boobless hours I spent dozing in and out of consciousness but what did I expect admission was only $3.99!

Tasha, Detroit, MI

No new ideas in the last 10 years? I'll give you 3: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Mathew Schmidt, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [USA}

I'm reminded of a comment by Jean-Luc Goddard. He said, "The problem with French cinema is a lack of money. The problem with American cinema is a lack of ideas." And this was back in the 1950s and 60s!! Hollywood has NEVER had an original idea. It is a very rare thing for a Hollywood studio release to be artistically successful and when that happens, history remembers the director, not the studio, and rightly so. How many people remember which studios financed most of Hitchcock's films? In any case, I think Pirates 3 is the best concluding entry in a franchise of this type for a little while. Still disappointing, though.

Ben, Melbourne, Australia

to jonathan and ann: Lighten up people, this is not meant to be a mind challenging film, try watching it agian with all your prejeduces removed and enjoy the ride! this is a fun family film, who cares if it was based on a ride, it delivers everything a good film should do. well worth watching!

Caetlin Brooke-Kingston, Epsom,

In reply to Ann in USA: no hollywood hasn't had an original idea in decades because audiences won't watch them. Films that combat issues in society or are a work of a script writers pure genius aren't watched because we as an audience don't like to watch films that challenge our moral standings. I know I'm quoting british films here.. but I'm british! This is England. How many of you will actually go and watch it? It's a film looking at how England really is but no-one wants that reality.
Pirates is a true phenomenon as films of this genre are usually massive flops. Pirates is a theme park ride, not a book therefore the script and the film itself is an imaginative story. The ride has no story behind it therefore the ideas are original.
As for the happy ending, I think its better this way, it's a pirates film do you think there really were happy endings in those days? Instead the film keeps about it, a sense of reality, well that's my opinion anyway.

Charlotte, Cambridge, UK

Why is anyone even watching this drivel? It's a theme park ride, for God's sake! Hollywood -- much less Disney -- hasn't had an original idea in over a decade.

Ann Rudkin, Winston-Salem, NC/USA

Mind-numbing and incomprehensible sensory overload.

jonathan, cambridge, cambs

I hate this ending too. Really, I don´t understand why... haven´t they live happily together? This is cruel.

Ivette, TT,

I hated the ending, Elizabeth ending up with will really sucked, I wanted her to end up with Jack but then again its unreal ending. To sit there and tell me she is willing to wait 10 years for one night with Will is just unthinkable when she could be sailing the world with Jack. I just dont see what they were thinking with this ending, I can understand her loving Will enough to keep him in her heart always but not Pine for him guarding a chest for 10 years while someone she loves alot sails the world alone.

I just think they blew the ending, let her end up with Will but she should of sailed off with Jack while waiting makes way more sense.

Dale, Sault Ste Marie, MI

I forgot to add a few things to my review. One, some people should stop trying to over annalyze movie plots and aspects, and two they should just enjoy the movie without hurting their brain. If you're going to go to a movie just to sit there and be judgemental and crude, maybe you should go into a hole and read a boring history book and try to find the meaning of that. Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End is a great movie that should not be brought down.

Sarbear, South Range,

i ABSOLUETLY LOVED the movie. I thought it was better than the first and second one. I didn;t really understand the Calypso idea and I didn't really like the ending. I liked it though, and I think that it deserves all five stars. I'm happy that it didn't have too many "creatures", and I thought the multilple Jacks to be funny and interesting in the personality department. Like I said, I ABSOLUETLY LOVED THE MOVIE!!

Sarbear, South Range,

Now tell us what you REALLY think!

Tony Lee, New York,

A very eloquent review and most likely accurate although I haven't seen the sequel yet. Although in defense of Mr. Depp (I dont know why) his acting talent should be able to get him over any typecasting that may result from his latest adventures as Cap Jack, after all he made it beyond Edward Scissorhands and the choc'ed up Charlie. Maybe the greater problem is directors like Burton that seem to think Depp is their "man".

Fabio, Phoenix, AZ

So it`s yet another film I bring my kid to and fall asleep. It will probably make millions as did the first two.

Kendog, Warsaw, US