WHEN we last left our heroes at the end of the second instalment, Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow, Pirate of the Caribbean, is betrayed by Elizabeth Swann and left to die at the wrath of the Kraken. And as a cliffhanger, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) makes a not-so-unexpected return, claiming there is a way to bring Jack back. So now the plan is set in motion.
But before they can go ahead, they need a map that will take them to World's End where Jack is being held prisoner in Davy Jones's Locker a sort of a dimensional limbo. Barbossa now leads the former crew of the Black Pearl into the home of the Pirate Lord of Singapore, Sao Feng (Chow Yun Fatt), to steal the map. At that same time, Cutler Beckett (a perfect icy portrayal by Tom Hollander) and the British Royal Navy are lying in wait and spring a surprise attack.
In the ensuing chaos, Sao Feng makes a secret deal with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) he will loan them the map and a ship if Will agrees to bring Jack to him in order to barter with Beckett. However, Barbossa and Will have their own agendas. Will needs Jack's Black Pearl the only ship that can catch up with Jones's Flying Dutchman to negotiate with Davy Jones for his father's release while Barbossa needs Jack's share of the Pieces of Eight in order to unite all nine Pirate Lords who make up the Brethren Court to fight Beckett and the Royal Navy.
And with Davy Jones's Dead Man's Chest now in Beckett's possession, he has also added the Flying Dutchman into his armada. Confused? You should be.
It is a lot to swallow. What started off as a fun, entertaining movie has become a confusing and complex architectural drawing for a skyscraper the engineers did a great job studying its intricacies and building it but they left out the site map, leaving visitors lost in its corridors. Johnny Depp was nominated for his role back in the first Curse of the Black Pearl, and that was well-deserved as in At World's End, Jack Sparrow looks less animated and even lethargic at some point.
(And he wants to make a fourth instalment?) He seems to have willingly traded his spot at the limelight with Rush, whose Barbossa looks free from inhibitions and drives the movie forward while holding nothing back, stealing every scene even from Jack himself. And although Bloom's Will has never been in the spotlight, he now has taken a seat further back in the bus while Kiera Knightley's Elizabeth has jumped forward as the leading lady in a male-dominated swash-buckling group of sea-outlaws.
There is more focus on Elizabeth as she plays a bigger role and gets more screen time but still not strong enough to make this movie hers as much as it is Depp's or Rush's. Not that I'm complaining. Among the numerous characters found, old and new, the most confusing one, however, is Chow Yun Fatt's Captain Sao Feng.
Even though he talks more than anyone else whenever he is on screen, it is just hard to understand his role in the scheme of all things and difficult to determine whose side he's on. He seems to have a plot of his own; which brings me to my next point: There are just too many sub-plots and mini-dramas that the general audience would not take time to figure out, nor care for (like Spider-Man 3 all over again!).
The more you wonder what's going on in At World's End, the more you will lose focus on what's going on and the more lost you will feel. But all negativity aside, there is a bit of the positive too. The action choreography sequences and the astounding visual effects make it the pirate movie of its time.
There is more rope-swinging from ship masts than with Tarzan on tree tops. And the ultimate showdown between The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman in the midst of a maelstrom makes it a worthy last stand for this trilogy. So my advice to you when you go watch the movie which you will, seeing as it is one of the must-watch movies of the season get comfortable and shut down your brain because you will need to survive the next three hours of its mind-boggling storyline.
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