The eye-popping excesses of the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean
franchise are, well, vast, but perhaps most easily summarized by a
watery tumble that puts Venezuela’s legendary Angel Falls and certainly
the United States’ Niagara Falls to shame. No simple metaphor, this
title: At World’s End literally takes its players to and over
the edge of the Earth (presumably, Sam Brownback is a fan), all in only
the first act of a blowout extravaganza that provides thousands of
special effects artisans a solid (if hardly exclusive) résumé credit.

That this film is essentially review-proof is a foregone conclusion, of
course, and not merely because of the $17 million it generated in
Thursday night previews, on its way perhaps to a record weekend take of
close to $200 million. So one needn’t dote much on the plot. Still, At World’s End might provide some interesting lessons
yet, as it could serve as the summer’s biggest and most lasting
reanimation of the age-old, oft-quarreled-over divide between critics
and the film-going public. The third installment of Spider-Man,
it’s true, split critics and fans (it’s currently teetering at 61%
positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but did so in interesting fashion. It was
precisely the emo-Peter Parker subplot and fanciful musical sequences
that beguiled many, if not all, writers, but proved toxic to every
avowed franchise fan boy. Because of its ambition and reach, as well as
some admittedly accrued goodwill, a lot of critics were willing to give
director Sam Raimi and the film a pass, essentially, while most comic book fans lashed out
at the movie’s atypicality and creativity, crying out for a simpler,
streamlined narrative. The battle lines here are of a different sort.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean
was a great and exceedingly well-colored, self-contained romp that had
just enough clever plot gambits and deftly interwoven supporting
characters. The sequels have then spun these off into empty theater.

What rings so inherently false about the putative conclusion of the Pirates
franchise is that there is no true or satisfying conclusion to speak of. Sure, things
“end,” much in the same fashion that one’s day does with sleep… only to
begin again. Leaving open (and openly encouraging the notion of)
separate franchise avenues for all major characters is, to be blunt, a
rather righteous and cynical cop-out. It smacks of weakness and not
knowing what to do save pad a running time with more visual hellfire, this
sort of desperate angling to be all things to all people. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.