pirates3

Well, we have reached the end of the Pirates trilogy and I gotta tell ya, it’s a mixed bag. This film is
book ended with brilliance, but sadly, what lies in between is a puzzle piece plot that never truly
manages to fit together. Even giving a synopsis of the storyline is hazardous at best, as the film flits
about willy-nilly from one flight of fancy to the next. Here goes my best effort.

The film begins with an effective and haunting cold opening that poetically portrays how dire things
have gotten since the last film. Lord Beckett is cracking down hard on piracy, handing out stiff
justice to anyone suspected of participating in unlawful seafaring. Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann and
crew, with the help of the newly resurrected Captain Barbossa, are trying to obtain a chart that will
lead them to the mysterious limbo that has imprisoned the soul of Captain Jack Sparrow.

They search in Singapore and encounter the pirate lord, Sao-Feng, played effectively by Chow Yun
Fat in a memorable, yet ultimately wasted cameo. This sequence is played out with a tense patience
and director Gore Verbinski does a nice job of letting the scene build before it explodes, literally, into
the film’s first major action scene. Sadly, this is the last time that any structured narrative bolsters
the film and it quickly descends into the quagmire of almost incomprehensible subplots that also
burdened the second film.

The group then rescues Captain Jack from his personal hell, which is the most ill conceived and
obnoxious sequences of the whole film. Johnny Depp’s portrayal of his trademark character has
descended over these three films. Gone is the foppish wordsmith of the first film and even the
desperate, redemption-seeking knave of the second. In this final installment, Sparrow is little more
than a buffoon; a walking sight gag whose comedic impact is upstaged by Barbossa’s undead
monkey.

Luckily, the return of Captain Barbossa, played to the hilt by Geoffrey Rush, helps alleviate some of
the performance doldrums. In fact, Depp’s most memorable moments in the film are scenes that he
plays opposite Rush. An honorable mention should also go out to Keith Richards as the coolly
understated Captain Teague, but once again the hodge-podge nature of this film sucks away any
impact this long anticipated cameo could have landed.

Basically, the film has a complete lack of focus and starts to flounder as it jumps from one scene to the next, where all the characters do is make pointless
bargains with one another, only to go back on their word two seconds later. Instead of sticking with the solid conflict of the pirates versus the establishment, the
screenwriters chose to go off on wild tangents that include, but are not limited to, the liberation of an imprisoned sea goddess.

One side character, referring to the ubiquitous Sparrow, asks “Does he plan all this out or does he just make it all up as he goes along?” This same question
could be asked of the filmmakers and I would wager money you’d some up with the latter answer.

The film’s ending does add some much needed dramatic punch and serves as a fitting conclusion to this saga, but it is not enough to dispel the lack of direction
prominent in the meat of the story. The final installment of the Star Wars prequels was “too little, too late.” For the Pirates movies this last chapter is certainly
“too much, too late.”