Chow Yun-Fat as Captain Sao Feng and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (2007).
©Walt Disney Pictures
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, Naomie Harris
Writers: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, based on characters created by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert
Director: Gore Verbinski
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Hoist the color high!
By: HauntDate: Monday, May 28, 2007
WARNING!!! EXTREMELY BIASED, GUSHING FANBOY REVIEW AHEAD!!!
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here...
Good lord, what an insanely gorgeous, awesome movie! Seriously, if cinematographer Dariusz Wolski doesn't win an Oscar for this then there is no justice. Every single frame of this film is stunningly beautiful. Fantasy epics have a tendency to do that, to create settings so out-of-this-world, breathtakingly beautiful that you can't help but want to visit them, to live there and lose yourself in them. But of course this isn't CREATED scenery, this is FOUND scenery.
But that's not really what I wanna talk about. If you've seen the first two films you already know the cinematography is outstanding. And you probably expect the same from the production design, art direction, set decoration, costume design, makeup effects, music composition, visual effects... you get the picture. And you'd be absolutely right. All of those and more are every bit as amazing as you should expect after the first two films. Moreso, in fact. The bar, all the bars, are significantly raised here.
But what you SHOULDN'T expect is a Disney film. Parents be well and truly warned, the PG-13 rating here is a touch misleading. The film is dotted with examples of pretty intense violence and shocking images throughout, but it's the first ten minutes you REALLY need to watch out for.
(Let the warning bells sound, for here there be SPOILERS! )
The film opens, as each of them has, with a little vignette. In the first film it was young Elizabeth singing "A Pirate's Life" and meeting the young Will Turner in the aftermath of a pirate attack. In the second it was the ruined wedding day and Will and Elizabeth's arrest by Cutler Beckett. In this one, however, things are decidedly darker. This one opens on the gallows, the first frame of film focusing on the hangman's noose, as dozens (hundreds?) of "pirates" are hanged and a representative of the East India Trading Company (hereafter referred to as the Company) reads a declaration of suspended rights, such as the right to legal representation, the right to a fair trial, etc. All this as men and women drop and swing and are tossed aside onto carts, led away between huge piles of boots and clothes stripped from the dead.
But that's not even the dark part. As another group of condemned are led up the steps to the gallows, the last is a small boy, perhaps 10 years old. He's too short for the noose to reach, so a barrel is set on the trap door and the boy lifted up on it.
This is a chilling, disturbing scene... as it's clearly meant to be. And I'm not complaining in the slightest. In fact I LOVE the darkness of this film. I love being shocked and even disturbed. But I can't help but wonder how some of this managed to squeeze out of the Disney studios, and with a PG-13, no less. This could easily have been an R... or should I say 'Aaarh'? (Oh c'mon, you knew it was coming.)
Anyways, that sets the stage, and in some degree the tone, for the picture. There's still plenty of humor to be had here, make no mistake. For all it's gruesome detail it's still a damned funny movie. But the character that most expect to bring the funny doesn't even appear on screen till something like thirty minutes in. Again, not a complaint. There are plenty of characters to hold our attention, and thank the gods one of them is Captain Hector Barbossa. Everybody gets a chance to crack wise or make us laugh, but there's something hilarious about Geoffrey Rush's performance as the over-the-top Barbossa. Even when he's being sinister (which he often is), he's just so damned funny. And undeniably charismatic. I actually don't find it difficult to see why various characters switch allegiance between the two captains... they're both appealing leaders... uh, sort of.
But enough of that, speaking of that OTHER captain, where is he in all of this? Well, turns out he's still on the Black Pearl. However, the Pearl is stranded in the "doldrums" of Davy Jones' Locker, which in Jack Sparrow's version of purgatory resembles an endless "sea" of sand and salt flats, flat and featureless for as far as the eye can see. And he's apparently still got a crew, but unfortunately that crew are all hallucinatory (perhaps) duplicates of himself. Yup, that's right, our first encounter with Wicked Jack this time around is a crowd scene. Hat's off to Johnny Depp for playing dozens of different Jacks, each just the tiniest fraction of a bit unique from each other.
I have to say, the mythology this franchise has created (or co-opted and advanced, perhaps?) blows me away. I love this kind of stuff, and this portrayal of Purgatory is possibly my favorite of any I've seen. I adore the idea that limbo for Jack Sparrow is being stuck on his ship with a disorganized, disobedient crew (who all happen to be him), unable to move, to sail, without a hint of a breeze or cool spray of salty mist.
Fortunately, there are agencies that have a plan for Jack, and so the special effects come into play and soon Jack is "sailing" again. The reintroduction of all our heroes with Cap'n Sparrow is great, and the constantly shifting allegiances, plotting and backstabbing that play such a powerful role in this story really begin to kick in at this point.
Let me address that for a second... the backstabbing. Critics of this movie, and there are going to be a LOT of them, will no doubt talk about how "confusing" it is. To be sure, there are a myriad of intricate plots within plots going on here. This is not a shut-your-brain-off-at-the-door kind of summer blockbuster. You will be expected to pay attention, and even think (*gasp*) at times. Every single character has his or her own agenda, and they all get screen time. But I personally had not a single problem following the story (and yes, there IS one). Not one time did I find myself lost or confused. At least no more than the filmmakers intended me to be, for that is part of the experience. Clearly you aren't always MEANT to know what everyone is thinking, or who will betray whom next.
Another critique that is bound to be leveled at this movie (because let's face it, it's the go to complaint of all critics, professional and "armchair")? Running time. This one plays out at a brisk 167 minutes. That's two hours forty seven minutes, for those keeping score at home. That's 24 minutes longer than Curse of the Black Pearl and 17 minutes longer than Dead Man's Chest. And not a second of it feels wasted. There is a TON of stuff to accomplish in this film, and every bit of it gets it's due time. And in my opinion not a second of it is wasted. This was the fastest near-three hours I've spent in a theater. The screening I saw was packed, and nearly all of the audience were either teenagers with zero attention span or "local yokels" (I'm in the South, after all) with better things to be doing with their time, such as watching NASCAR and arguing about football. And to my amazement, not one person got up and left after the two-hour mark. Granted the d-bag sitting next to me complained after the lights came back up that his girlfriend made him sit for three hours just so she could drool over Depp, but he sat there and took it... and didn't really fidget like I would have expected. (But perhaps that was a function of his fear of his girlfriend more than a measure of his patience.)
At any rate, it's long, and critics will piss and moan about it. But it never FEELS long, at least not to me. And the time is used well, because everyone get a full and satisfying story here. They've all got tales that need telling, and with nary and exception, all is told. And told very, very well.
One thing this film does staggeringly well is juggle an enormous cast of characters without shorting anyone. Well okay, so Governor Swann doesn't get much screen time. But in a perfect example of what I'm talking about, the estimated 7 or 8 minutes he's on screen he manages to serve a story purpose and make an impact. I suppose if you were watching all three films strictly for his character, and if he was the only person in the entire story whom you gave two shits about, you might feel short-changed. But then again possibly not. His story has an ending, and it's one that fits with what has gone before.
And that, in case I haven't been clear yet, is one of the things I'm most impressed by here. There are 15 or 20 main cast members here to deal with, and I didn't feel that any of them were forgotten or ignored. In fact practically every single one of them got a satisfying and significant denouement by film's end. That's an amazing achievement. Writers Ted Eliott and Terry Rosio, and of course director Gore Verbinski, should be commended. I can't even imagine creating such a huge cast of characters and making sure that each of them has a distinct voice (and making sure that those voices are all heard). Wow... just wow.
I'm sure I'm rambling here... it's 1:00 am and I'm running soley on the post-Pirates high right now. If you've bothered to stick with me through all of this garbage so far, my condolences. I'll try and pay it off now by talking about specific characters, one by one.
Elizabeth Swan
If it hadn't ever been made clear to you before, these films are HER story. You may have other characters that are your favorites, and the entire world may worship at Cap'n Jack Sparrow's booted feet, but the journey here in this franchise is that of Ms. Swann. It has a beginning, a middle, and a clearly defined end. And of all the characters she is the one that most noticeably changes and grows. I confess that in the beginning she was not the one I most identified with, and thus not the one I attached myself most closely to. but over time she has proven to be a pretty remarkable character. The place where she ends up, though pretty shocking and extreme compared to where she started the story, makes absolute sense.
Will Turner
In terms of journey and change, he comes a close second to Elizabeth. Given his attitude towards pirates in the first film some of what he does here is fairly insane. But when all is said and done, just as with Elizabeth, everything makes perfect sense. Again I have to say that the end of the story here is most remarkable for how perfect it feels. Looking back over the entire franchise, most of what happens by the end credits (and beyond, but I'll get to that) feels as if it couldn't have happened any other way.
Jack Sparrow
Greatest character ever to grace the silver screen? Maybe, maybe not. I have an opinion, but I'll save it. Suffice to say I love everything about this character, the good and the bad. And the bad is on full display here, by which I mean the "badder" side of his nature. While I loved both of the previous films in the franchise, there's no doubt that Jack was a slightly different kind of guy from Curse to Chest. I've heard it said that in the first one he was a great pirate pretending to be a foppish, cowardly fool, and in the second he seemed more like a foppish, cowardly fool acting at being a great pirate. To some degree I agree with that, though I don't think it was inconsistent writing or acting... I think it was deliberate. Because here in the third installment we get what I contend is the REAL Jack Sparrow. Here he is a demented, excentric fool that just happens to be perhaps the greatest pirate anyone has ever seen. The idea of a method to one's madness has never been more apropos than for Jack. He may at times intentionally exaggerate one aspect over the other, fool or fiend, but both are absolutely real. This time around we get to see both sides, and they are by turns funny and frightening. And in the end, though we've seen many, many questionable traits, and been given many chances to question just how noble this man may be, in the end we get what I consider to be incontrovertible proof that he is a hero. A dark one, to be sure. But of all the characters in the entire franchise, he makes what may be the grandest redemptive gesture. Wait and see.
Captain Barbossa
I'll say again, thank the gods he's back. Not only is he a fantastic character in his own right, but Jack is absolutely never funnier than when he's paired with Barbossa. And what a joy it is to watch Geoffrey Rush positively devour the scenery every time he's on screen. There simply isn't a frame of film that he's in where he isn't the most commanding presence. Even the times he's standing completely still and silent (and there are a couple I'm thinking of), there's something imposing about him. There are a few actors like that out there. Depp is amazing, and deserves every bit of praise he's given for the frenetic mad genius character he's helped create, but Mr. Rush has the certain something that OWNS the camera no matter what he's doing. His character in this film doesn't get quite as profound a "journey" as some of the others, but his story is still great, and as with all the others it fits perfectly. I use the word 'denouement' quite a bit, but only because I'm so impressed with the satisfying "end" each character is given. I put "end" in quotes for a reason. Keep reading...
Davy Jones
I admit to not being quite as familiar with Bill Nighy as with Geoffrey Rush. My only real conscious impression of him prior to this role was Love Actually. But it's my impression that he carries much the same gravitas as I ascribed to Mr. Rush above. At the very least in this particular set of films he takes what could potentially have been a fairly ridiculous role and makes it utterly compelling, moving and real. Anyone who knows me will tell you the significance of what I'm about to say, but I suggest Bill Nighy's Davy Jones be placed in the same category as Andy Serkis' Gollum in terms of demonstrating how important it is to have an ACTOR behind even the most jaw-dropping CGI. A lesser actor wearing the motion capture pajamas for either of those characters and they just would not have been as memorable, regardless of the effects magic. Bill Nighy commits himself one hundred and FIFTY percent to this character, and having watched some of the behind the scenes stuff and seen the hopelessly goofy gear he had to wear while performing, I'd say that's a doubly-impressive job. This time around we get more of a personal story for Mr. Jones, paying off (at least to some degree) the tortured lover angle of his origin. While it doesn't end up getting as much focus as some other characters, it's showcased enough to be satisfying. Unfortunately given that he is no longer exactly a "free spirit" due to the Company controlling his heart, he spends much of the film being a restrained and frustrated force. But that just means that when he does manage to get some freedom he's extra dangerous. There were two moments so shocking in this film that I literally audibly gasped... Davy Jones gave me one of 'em.
Admiral Norrington
Yup, you read right. Admiral. He's climbed back up the ladder, as it were. But he quickly discovers that it hasn't brought the satisfaction he might have hoped. Though there are elements of redemption in pretty much everybody's stories here, James Norrington gets one of the more on-the-nose opportunities. Given his character role in Curse it's pretty amazing how much I've come to like this character. Chest put a lot of mileage on Norrington, and managed to make him one of the more fascinating characters in the story. Once again, there's a denouement here, but his isn't really one of the happier ones. Still, it's fitting given who the character is by this point and, more importantly given the things he's done and choices he's made. Redemption can only take you so far, otherwise it loses it's importance. If all sins can be forgiven in equal measure, well than what's the point of the concept of sin?
'Bootstrap' Bill Turner
Will's father was a great addition to the cast in the second film, and though given less screen time in the third, his presence is more strongly felt I think. This time, while still serving as the primary driving focus for another character (Will, duh), we get a better sense of the inner pain and turmoil he himself feels. In fact he gets a scene at one point that literally brought me to tears. Stellan Skarsgard does a wonderful job with yet another role that could have been unintentionally comic or silly. He brings the perfect level of humanity to a character that has lost nearly every outward trace of it. I love the way he plays this character.
Tia Dalma
Well, after the second film there was a lot of speculation about this character and what her role is/was/would be. The "reveal" of her true nature is handled pretty matter-of-factly in this picture, which could have potentially been one of my few complaints. But really I appreciate the fact that they didn't toy with us on this one. Truthfully the film is already full to bursting with plot, so perhaps there just wasn't room for another mystery and twist/surprise. But whatever the reason, her nature is fairly quickly apparent. However, knowing her nature does nothing to spoil her story or lessen her role in the bigger picture. I fully expect the way her story wraps up to be one of the complaints regularly leveled at World's End, in so much as she really doesn't get the denouement I've been praising for everyone else. I mean she's trying to achieve something and, for the most part, she does by the end. But in terms of storytelling she kind of just disappears at the end. Do despite my claims that "EVERYONE" gets a satisfying closing, I guess this one character is sort of left in the dust of the high-octane third act. But it's a very, very minor quibble.
Lord Cutler Beckett
Not sure what to say about this guy. I really like him, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Something about his arrogant, smarmy demeanor is fun to watch. Ironically he feels slightly less menacing now that he's actually got power than he did in the second film when he was still seeking power... but I suppose that makes a certain sense. Also ironically, considering many fans say he's a lame, boring villain, he is given one of the more extravagant and frankly breathtaking special effects sequences. You'll know it when you see it, trust me.
Captain Sao Feng
To tell the truth, Chow Yun-Fat is never better than when he's diving slow-mo through the air firing twin .45's in a balletic orgy of John Woo-orchestrated violence. But considering there are no .45's in this flick, he still manages to be impressively menacing. Though I personally was not "offended" by anything in this movie, Sao Feng gets one of the scenes that I can almost guarantee will catch a lot of hell from critics for being too dark. It's very quick, almost a blink and you'll miss it kind of scene. But it's pretty intense, and I can see how it might almost, ALMOST cross a line. Given this is ostensibly a Disney PG-13 movie it kind of does cross a line. But then this scene comes almost two hours after Disney has already hanged a 10 year old, so maybe all things are relative.
Captain Teague
Probably the worst kept secret in casting history, Keith Richards' cameo as the man that might be (hint: he IS) Jack's father is a treat. It's also not much of a "cameo", being a slightly longer and more significant screen presence than I'd been expecting. I can't say for sure if Mr. Richards will be winning any acting awards, but given who he is and what sort of character he's playing, there's not much "acting" involved I suppose. He also gets a chance to pluck out a song on the guitar that was pretty satisfying, if brief. Also, loved the cameo (this time it really was a cameo) of Jack's mom. Yeah, now that one was a slightly better kept secret.
Okay, enough is enough. Quickly, a list of just a few of my favorite things not already mentioned...
* The Song. Every one of the Pirates gets one. This one, heard in the opening vignette, is really morbidly cool.
* The Singapore set. If this isn't added to the Disney ride experience it's a crime.
* Straining "credulity."
* Jack the monkey reacting to the cold.
* The sea of stars.
* The return, journey and ultimate fate of "the sword."
* The "rocks" in the Locker.
* The shout-outs (the most deliberate and overt yet) to the original ride.
* "No, the world's the same. There's just less in it." (Or words to that effect.)
* "Jack Sparrow, you have paid me a great insult." "That doesn't sound like me."
* The countless, endless backstabbing and changing alliances. Critics will LOATHE it, but I loved it.
* The Brethren Court.
* The revelation of what Barbossa's "Piece of Eight" really is.
* "This is madness!" "This is politics."
* The vote.
* Seeing what Davy Jones used to look like.
* The Wild West-style showdown on the sandy avenue.
* Best. Wedding. Ever. (Except my own, of course.)
* Mrs. Haunt comparing this film to Deadliest Catch.
* The possibility of Jack's next adventure.
* "It's pronounced, 'egregious'."
* The reversed 'Cinderella' moment.
* The after-credits vignette.
Edited-to-add: Have now seen it a second time (and will be taking friends to see it a third time this evening) and all my opinions still hold. In fact I loved it even more the second time around. And the Ennio Morricone-inspired "showdown" scene was even more overtly obvious (and cooler) when I knew to look for it.
I've been reading a LOT of reviews from critics (both "professional" and "armchair") and as expected they all complain about the length and the confusion. To be expected, I guess. Still, it is disheartening that American audiences have such a short attention span and are so unwilling or unable to follow more than one plotline at a time.
But whatever, right? Whatever blows your skirt up. Just because I personally loved everything about it doesn't make it the best movie ever... though likewise just because someone else couldn't follow it or thought it was too long and boring doesn't make it the worst. Criticisms are all opinion, after all.
Click here to read the staff review by Mania.
