Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - review

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (12a)
Dir. Gore Verbinski

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Yo ho ho and a bottle of ‘um, wait a minute – haven’t we seen all this somewhere before?’
Here it is, the third and potentially final Pirates of the Caribbean sails into cinemas all guns blazing, all timbers shivering and all expectations resting on it redeeming the swashbuckling fun series that faltered a little with last year’s Dead Man’s Chest.
As devious Pirate Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) states at one point: “Everything we've ever done has lead to this…”
It’s no secret that ‘At World’s End’ brings everybody’s favourite pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) back from his perilous departure at the end of the last movie, in fact just about everyone is back. Marvel at the slightly less useless Will Turner (Orlando ‘not sure I’m ever going to convince as a leading man’ Bloom) and the sexiest pirate fancier ever to walk the plank - Elizabeth Swann (Keira ‘nobody else could look this good in grimy pirate outfit’ Knightley) who are now allied with one time enemy Barbossa and the mystical Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris).
New additions include several more Pirate Captains such as Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) and Captain Teague (a brilliant cameo by Keith Richards) but what you probably want to know is - does it deliver the goods?
Well me hearties – kind of… At World's End is a darker and less comically pleasing adventure than the previous two. The grimmer tone is set from the opening mass executions which might prove disturbing for – well, anyone actually and it takes a while to recover. There are at least a couple of quality mirthful moments (courtesy of Jack Sparrow of course), just don’t go expecting a laugh-a-thon. What I was looking forward to most was the promised titanic sea battle where every pirate must make a stand not only for their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving Pirate way. Alas this was just one of many scenes that didn’t deliver all I was hoping; in fact Pirates 3 turns out to be just an OK (if much too long) film when it could have been an excellent one. Think muddled Matrix 3 more than fun Spiderman 3…
Having said that – you probably do want know if Will can save his dad from the dastardly Davy Jones? Has Captain Jack finally bitten off more than he can chew in coming back from the dead? And yes, someone finally gets the girl but who will it be?
Only one way to find out…

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action ööö – not enough, and what there is feels 'recycled'
Laughs öö – not enough!! come on... Sparrow is one of the funniest characters ever but wasted here
Horror ööö – more than expected, what was all that hanging about?
Babes öööö – Keira ‘nobody else could look this good in grimy pirate outfit’ Knightley

Overall ööö (It's OK, but it could have been great)


"all the girls love a pirate... especially the daper Jack Sparrow it seems!?"


"me? I'll settle for the gorgeous miss knightley - this is very much her film!"

Darkmatters: H O M E