Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

I will say I absolutely loved Curse of the Black Pearl, it's one of my all-time favourite movies. Dead Mens Chest was enjoyable and lively, if overlong. At World's End is certainly not a terrible film, far from it, I just found it rather disappointing that's all, plot-wise being the least remarkable of the three films. I will say there is a lot to recommend it, namely the art direction, and the special effects weren't too bad either. The cinematography was impressive, there is some lovely period detail and I thought there were some very well staged battle sequences. The music by Hans Zimmer, one of my favourite film composers, was outstanding, very rousing and dramatic. And the performances weren't so bad either- Jack Sparrow is still the lovable rogue we have come to know and love, and Johnny Depp played him marvellously. A very talented actor, Geoffrey Rush, sinks his teeth into the part of Captain Barbosa, I particularly loved the line, "I'm a bit busy at the moment." And Bill Nighy was delightfully villainous as Davy Jones. However, the film does have flaws that prevents it from being the rollicking film it had the potential of being. The plot did take a while to get going, and sometimes became unfocused and convoluted, like Elizabeth and Will declaring their wedding vows in the middle of a big fight. Also there are a lot of characters, and one or two of them served no real purpose to the plot, and a lot was crammed into the long running time, so at the end of the day, it felt a bit bloated. The script was full of existing jokes, not necessarily a bad thing, but overall it lacked freshness, and the humour and fun, that made me love the first film so much. Overall, it is certain performances, fantastic music and some well-staged battles that salvage an otherwise bloated and disappointing second sequel. 6/10 Bethany Cox