Psycho's Movie Reviews #422: Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a 2007 American epic fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski, the third instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and the sequel to Dead Man's Chest (2006). It follows Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Hector Barbossa, and the crew of the Black Pearl as they seek to rescue Captain Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' Locker. They then prepare to fight the East India Trading Company, led by Cutler Beckett, who controls Davy Jones and plans to extinguish piracy forever.

Two sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl were conceived in 2004, with Elliott and Rossio developing a story arc that would span both films. The film was shot in two shoots during 2005 and 2006, the former of which was released as Dead Man's Chest. This also marks the final film of the series to be directed by Verbinski. With a production budget of nearly US$ 300 million, it was, at time of production, the most expensive film ever made.

Walt Disney Pictures released the film in the United States on May 25, 2007. Critical reviews were mixed; the film was praised for its performances, direction, musical score, action scenes, humour and special effects, but was criticized for its plot, character development and long running time of 168 minutes. Despite this, At World's End was the highest-grossing film of 2007, bringing in over $960 million. It was nominated at the 80th Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects. It won favourite movie actor for Johnny Depp in 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. A sequel, On Stranger Tides, was released May 20, 2011.

Plot

To control the oceans, Lord Cutler Beckett executes anyone associated with piracy in Port Royal and orders Davy Jones to destroy all pirate ships. Condemned prisoners sing "Hoist the Colours" to compel the nine Pirate Lords to convene at Shipwreck Cove to hold the Brethren Court. Because Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea, never named a successor before being dragged to Davy Jones' Locker, Hector Barbossa, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Tia Dalma, and the surviving crew of the Black Pearl consisting of Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti, and Joshamee Gibbs plot to rescue Jack. In Singapore, the crew meet Captain Sao Feng, Pirate Lord of the South China Sea, who owns navigational charts to the Locker. Will secretly promises to give Jack to Feng in return for the Pearl, intending to use it to rescue his father Bootstrap Bill Turner from the Flying Dutchman.

The crew rescues Jack and recover the Pearl. As they depart, they encounter boats of dead souls, including Elizabeth's father Governor Swann, executed by Beckett. Tia Dalma reveals that the goddess Calypso charged Davy Jones with guiding the souls of those who died at sea to the next world. Every ten years he could come ashore to be with the woman he loved. Jones corrupted his purpose and was cursed to become a monster. The soul of Governor Swann reveals that whoever kills Jones, by stabbing his disembodied heart, must become the Dutchman's captain.

Returning to the living world, the Pearl stops at an island for fresh water. They are attacked by Sao Feng and Beckett's men. Jack secretly promises to make sure the pirate coven goes to battle against Beckett in exchange for his freedom. Elizabeth is handed over to Feng, who believes she is Calypso, while the rest of the crew make for Shipwreck Cove aboard the Pearl. Jack throws Will off the ship as part of a plan to seize control of the Dutchman. Sao Feng tells Elizabeth that the first Brethren Court bound Calypso in human form after she betrayed her lover, Davy Jones. Feng plans to release her to defeat Beckett. Jones attacks Feng's ship. Feng appoints Elizabeth his successor as Pirate Lord before dying.

Elizabeth and the crew are locked in the brig of the Dutchman, where she finds Bootstrap Bill losing himself to the Dutchman's curse. He tells her that Will must not come; by killing Jones he will bind himself to the ship. Admiral James Norrington frees Elizabeth and her crew from the Dutchman, but is killed by a crazed Bootstrap Bill.

The Pearl arrives at Shipwreck Cove, where Barbossa attempts to persuade the Brethren Court to release Calypso. Davy Jones visits Tia Dalma in the Pearl's brig, revealing she is Calypso. Jack's father Captain Teague, Keeper of the Pirate Code, informs the Court that only an elected Pirate King can declare war, but, predictably, all the selfish pirate lords each vote for themselves, preventing a majority selection. To avoid a stalemate, Jack votes for Elizabeth, making her King. Elizabeth, Jack, Barbossa, Beckett, Jones, and Will parley, trading Will for Jack. Barbossa frees Calypso, but when Will reveals it was Jones who enabled the first Court to imprison her, Calypso vanishes and summons a maelstrom.

The Pearl and Dutchman battle in the maelstrom. Elizabeth and Will are wed by Barbossa in the midst of the battle. On the Dutchman, Jack and Jones duel for control of Jones' heart. Jones stabs Will, mortally wounding him. Jack helps Will stab the heart, killing Jones, whose body falls into the maelstrom. Jack and Elizabeth escape the Dutchman as it sinks into the maelstrom.

As Beckett's ship, the Endeavour, engages the Pearl, the Dutchman rises from the sea; it is now captained by Will and the crew has been freed from Jones' curse. The two pirate ships destroy the Endeavour. A stunned Beckett goes down with his ship while his navy retreats. With Will bound to guide souls lost at sea to the next world, he and Elizabeth bid farewell to each other. Will departs on the Dutchman, leaving Elizabeth pregnant and with the chest containing his heart.

Jack and Joshamee Gibbs discover Barbossa stole the Pearl again, but, after anticipating this, Jack steals Feng's charts prior to Barbossa taking control of the ship. He departs from Tortuga to track down the Fountain of Youth.

In a post-credits scene set ten years later, Elizabeth and her son Henry watch Will return aboard the Dutchman.

Production

Development

Following The Curse of the Black Pearl's success in 2003, the cast and crew signed on for two sequels to be shot back-to-back. For the third film, director Gore Verbinski wanted to return the tone to that of a character piece after using the second film to keep the plot moving. Inspired by the real-life confederation of pirates, Elliott and Rossio looked at historical figures and created fictional characters from them to expand the scope beyond the main cast. Finally embellishing their mythology, Calypso was introduced, going full circle to Barbossa's mention of "heathen gods" that created the curse in the first film.

Filming

Parts of the third film were shot during location filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, a long shoot which finished on March 1, 2006. During August 2005, the Singapore sequence was shot. The set was built on Stage 12 of the Universal Studios backlot, and comprised 40 structures within an 80 by 130-foot (24 by 40-m) tank that was 3+1⁄2 feet (1.1 m) deep. As 18th century Singapore is not a well-documented era, the filmmakers chose to use an Expressionist style based on Chinese and Malaysian cities of the same period. The design of the city was also intended by Verbinski to parody spa culture, with fungi growing throughout the set. Continuing this natural feel, the floorboards of Sao Feng's bathhouse had to be cut by hand, and real humidity was created by the combination of gallons of water and the lighting equipment on the set.

Filming resumed on August 3, 2006, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah for 70 days off the California coast, as all the shooting required in the Caribbean had been conducted in 2005. Davy Jones' Locker was shot at Utah, and it was shot in a monochromatic way to represent its different feeling from the usual colourful environment of a pirate. The climactic battle was shot in a former air hangar at Palmdale, California, where the cast had to wear wetsuits underneath their costumes on angle-tipped ships. The water-drenched set was kept in freezing temperatures, to make sure bacteria did not come inside and infect the crew. A second unit was shot at Niagara Falls. Industrial Light & Magic did 750 effects shots, while Digital Domain also took on 300. They spent just five months finishing the special effects. The film posed numerous challenges in creating water-based effects.

Filming finished on December 12, 2006, in Molokai, and the first assembly cut was three hours. Twenty minutes were removed, not including end credits, though producer Jerry Bruckheimer maintained that the long running time was needed to make the final battle work in terms of build-up.

Music

Hans Zimmer composed the score, as he did for the previous films, and wrote the music for The Simpsons Movie at the same time. Zimmer composed eight new motifs, including a new love theme for the At World's End soundtrack. He scored scenes as the editors began work, so as to influence their choice of cutting to the music. Gore Verbinski helped on the score. He played the Ennio Morricone-influenced guitar music in the parley scene between Barbossa, Sparrow, Elizabeth and Will, Davy Jones, and Cutler Beckett. He also co-wrote the song "Hoist the Colours" with Zimmer.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The world premiere of At World's End was held on May 19, 2007, at Disneyland, home of the ride that inspired the film and where the first two films in the trilogy debuted. Disneyland offered the general public a chance to attend the premiere through the sale of tickets, priced at $1,500 per ticket, with proceeds going to the Make-a-Wish Foundation charity. Just a few weeks before the film's release, Walt Disney Pictures decided to move the United States opening of At World's End from screenings Friday, May 25, 2007, to Thursday at 8 pm, May 24, 2007. The film opened in 4,362 theaters domestically, beating Spider-Man 3's theatre opening record by 110 (this record was surpassed by The Dark Knight the following year).

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 228 reviews, with an average rating of 5.46/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "POTC: AWE provides the thrilling action scenes, but mixes in too many characters with too many incomprehensible plot threads." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 50 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Drew McWeeny praised the film's complexity as giving it repeat-viewing value, and its conclusion as "perhaps the most canny move it makes." Todd Gilchrist found the story too similar to other cinematic trilogies such as Star Wars, but praised the production values. Brian Lowry felt that "unlike last year's bloated sequel, it at least possesses some semblance of a destination, making it slightly more coherent – if no less numbing during the protracted finale." Total Film praised the performances but complained that the twists and exposition made it hard to care for the characters. Edward Douglas liked the film but had issues with its pacing, while Blake Wright criticized the Davy Jones' Locker and Calypso segments. James Berardinelli found it the weakest of the trilogy as "the last hour offers adventure as rousing as anything provided in either of the previous instalments... which doesn't account for the other 108 minutes of this gorged, self-indulgent, and uneven production." Peter Travers praised Richards and Rush but felt "there can indeed be too much of a good thing," regarding Depp's character. Travers later declared the movie to be one of the worst films of the year. Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent said the film was overall a disappointment and that "the final showdown is a non-event and the repetitive swordplay and inane plot contrivances simply become boring by the end". Richard Roeper gave a positive review, saying "Gore Verbinski and the stunt and special effects crews have created one of the most impressive blends of live-action work and CGI wizardry ever put on film," and believing it "rarely drags and is almost always entertaining." He praised the performances of the actors as one of the best things about the film.

Chow Yun-fat's character stirred controversy with the Chinese press. Perry Lam, of Hong Kong cultural magazine Muse, found an offensive resemblance between Chow's character and Fu Manchu: "Now Fu Manchu has returned after an absence of 27 years in the Hollywood cinema; except that, in a nod to political correctness and marketing realities, he is no longer called Fu Manchu."

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End earned $309,420,425 in North America and $654,000,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $963,420,425. It is the highest-grossing film of 2007 and the third-highest-grossing film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Compared to its predecessor, it grossed far less at the North American box office, but more outside North America. Still, its worldwide earnings are more than $100 million below Dead Man's Chest's. During its worldwide opening weekend, it grossed $344.0 million, making it the seventh-largest opening.

At World's End was released in a then-record 4,362 theaters in North America, and was shown on around 11,500 screens, which is still an all-time record. On its first three-day weekend, it earned $114,732,820. It set a Memorial Day 4-day weekend record ($139,802,190), which it still retains. This record was previously held by X-Men: The Last Stand. Including Thursday night previews, as well, At World's End earned $153,042,234 in 5 days, and is the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2007. Among May's Big Three (Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3 and Pirates 3), Pirates 3 grossed the least both during its opening weekend and in total earnings. However, this was mainly attributed to the fact that it was released third, after the other two films, so there was already too much competition. It is also the second-highest-grossing film in the Pirates series.

Budget $300 million

Box office $960.9 million

My Review

The Pirates of the Caribbean-movie serials is probably one I'll never grow tired off. The characters are fun and great, always adventurous and spectacular to watch.

It's really too bad that this time they felt the need to make things even bigger, more complex and conclusive than the previous two movies. Really not needed. In my opinion the first movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is still the best because of the reason that it's simple, fun and choices to be purely entertaining. They already went wrong with this approach during the second movie; "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", when they put in more new characters and different hard to follow plot lines. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" goes on in the same trend as the previous movie. There are more new characters and as far as the new many plot-lines are concerned...well let me just say that after a while I just gave up trying to understand the movie and just let the movie take me away with its visuals, humour and other entertaining elements. And this movie regardless should really be able to take you away on a roller-coaster-ride of pure entertainment.

No doubt in my mind that this movie could had become the best one out of the series. It had all the potential and budget for that, now if they had only cut down about halve of the script...Most of the plot-lines seem redundant and are actually far from believable because they contradict from what happened in the first two movies. The many betrayals among characters and side-picking became really confusing after a while, till it reached a point when you just didn't knew who was fighting for what. But like I said before, after a while you just stop caring about it and simply enjoy the movie for what it brings you. It all is also the reason why the movie is now nearly 3 hours long. Now the movie is not as good and entertaining as the first but maybe just slightly better than the second one, because of the large scale of this movie.

The movie is definitely big. There is no lack of action as some people claim there is. There is just as much action as there is in the first two movies, only difference this time is that the movie is nearly 3 hours long and therefor the movie also has some more talking-sequences and slower moments in it.

The movie is also big with its musical score by Hans Zimmer and he actually succeeded in composing a new great theme for the movie. In its action moments the movie gets definitely uplifted by its musical score.

The action sequences are definitely well constructed and at times pure eye candy. So are the special effects, although I feel that the second movie was still better on that. It seems like they tried to overdo things this time and I'm mainly talking about the end battle, when it comes down to its special effects, by putting in some complex shots. No matter how good CGI is these days, you still see that it's CGI.

Most roles get extended in this movie. Marty, Tia Dalma and even Jack the monkey and Cotton's parrot. But of course the movie still remains the Jack Sparrow-show. Really one of the best characters in recent years, all thanks to Johnny Depp, who provide the movie with its biggest laughs and most hilarious absurd moments. He still plays the character as good and fresh as he did for the first time 4 years ago. You can't just ever grow tired of Jack Sparrow. I was also very pleased to see Geoffrey Rush back as Barbossa. His role was bigger which allowed Geoffrey Rush to shine even more. Bill Nighy was also as good as always as Davy Jones. Orlando Bloom's and Keira Knightley's acting also has really improved over the years. I was actually surprised to see how much of the movie Keira Knightley carries this time and how well she does this. Even in the sequences with Geoffrey Rush she does. She also gets to do more interesting in the movie when it comes done to action. In a way she has taken over the Will (Orlando Bloom) role in this movie this time and Will himself gets pushed more to the background this time compared to the first two movies, which really shouldn't bother most people, unless you're a teenage-girl of course. She handles both the action- and comical sequences really well. And even Keith Richards shows up in an already classic cameo as Jack's father. But some role also got narrowed down to my regret, such as Jonathan Pryce's and Jack Davenport's and lets not forget the Kraken.

Still, I really wouldn't mind seeing more Pirates of the Caribbean movies in the future, if needed with new actors and characters, as long as Johnny Depp stays as Jack Sparrow. The serials still have more than enough potential and haven't dried up yet. 8.6/10