‘Pirates’: Let’s bury this treasure

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

I sincerely hope At World’s End is truly the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. I’m a big fan of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, but there’s something about this third installment that just doesn’t sit right with me.
Director Gore Verbinski’s bloated flick is walking down the plank and nearing the deep end, even if it hasn’t completely fallen off yet.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has too many characters to keep track of or care about, too many people returning from the dead, and it’s just too long for its own good.
Last summer’s Dead Man’s Chest was nearly two and a half hours; At World’s End is almost three hours. Longer doesn’t mean better. I can’t say that it’s not entertaining at times. Reliable Depp puts in a good performance, the scenery is nice and the battle scenes are action-packed.
Dead Man’s Chest ended with a pretty good cliffhanger — Jack Sparrow was presumed dead, and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who was killed in the first film, Curse of the Black Pearl, was brought back from the dead.
Fans of the franchise knew that the filmmakers wouldn’t kill off the big star. Even so, Jack doesn’t make his first appearance until about a half hour into At World’s End. It’s worth the wait, though.
In At World’s End, the evil Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Co. still wants to rid the seven seas of all treacherous pirates. Newly undead Captain Barbossa, along with on-and-off lovebirds Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightly), need Jack, who has been banished in Davy Jones’ locker at the end of the world, for a meeting of the nine Pirate Lords. Barbossa, Will and Elizabeth recruit Chinese pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) to help them sail to the end of the world.
Having been swallowed up by the Kracken in Dead Man’s Chest has wreaked havoc on Jack’s already shaky psychological state. The drunken pirate now has hallucinations and routinely sees multiple versions of himself. It’s all in good fun, and just what the movie needs — more Jack Sparrow.
Once they do locate Jack, it is really difficult to tell who is on what side and what exactly they are fighting for or about throughout most of the film. The middle is extremely talky, and sometimes I honestly had no idea what was going on. Witchy woman Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) returns in a larger role from the last film — and that’s especially hard to understand.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards dons some black eyeliner and a dreadlock wig for his highly anticipated cameo appearance as Jack’s father, Treague Sparrow. It’s a small but memorable part, especially when Treague updates Jack on his mum’s condition.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is everything a summer blockbuster should be, and I won’t take that away from it. But maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I’m just tired of these franchise flicks and hope that next year I’m not writing about Pirates 4: Oops, Looks Like It’s Not the World’s End. ••
Movie Grade: B-