Other movies in this series:
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Rish's Reviews
Like last year's Dead Man's Chest, tyranist saw it as soon as it opened, and I saw it after. But unlike Dead Man's Chest, I'm reviewing it first. Life's not fair, kids, the sooner you realise that, the sooner you can start tearing up your books and graffiting the walls.
The film starts with a musical number, and the surprises don't end there. Our merry band of travelers, led by Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightley), are now in league with Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) and Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), and try to form an alliance with Captain Sao Feng (Chow-yun Fat) to rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Davy Jones's realm of the dead. And then more characters come onboard, and loyalties shift, and battles are fought, and people get married, and people get killed, and the adventure continues. It really does.
So, Pirates has come to an end. Or has it?
I didn't exactly hate the second film. I felt it was over-long and over-rated, and pretty much inferior to the original in every way possible. And as the box office went up and up and people declared it the best thing since . . . I don't know, Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension, I did grow to dislike it a lot more than it deserved on its own merits. But fame does for me what familiarity does in the old cliche.
At World's End seems like a lot more of a complete film--and it better, since there are at least ten main characters and almost as many major plotlines that need tying up. There was nary a bad special effect in the bunch, and if anything, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) was even more impressive in this go-round.
Amazingly, one of the plot twists was predicted by tyranist almost a year ago. He's not the most revoltingly intelligent man I've ever met for nothing.
This film was considerably less Horror than the previous two (it was much more Action and Fantasy), but I can review it on here in good conscience simply due to the addition of a pirate with a moray eel head. (whew!)
I'm happy with this film. Yes, a bit of it was excessive, and the heroes survive peril that would (and does) kill hundreds of background characters, and it had the George Lucasian tendency to stuff so many special effects into a sequence that it becomes headache-inducing rather than exciting. And Elizabeth Swan was maybe a bit too beautiful, but hey, that's just me.
This is a long film (clocking in just south of three hours), and while not interminable, it does all it can to answer all questions and cover all the bases before the credits roll. And then we get a bit more.
I, for one, am satisfied. The film cleverly brings the stories of some characters to an end while leaving avenues for further stories to be told in the future. Though there was talk of a fourth Pirates movie as long ago as 2006, I hope they elect to go out on a high note. We feel some closure here--especially if the coda is taken into account--and though these last two films could be seen as cashing in, to make more would be unnecessary as . . . well, most sequels.
Best Scare: It's not really a scary movie. Some of the characters' teeth come the closest, though.
I'd Recommend It To: If you saw the first two, you have to see the third. That would be like seeing The Matrix 1 and 2, but not catching Constantine.
Posted: July 4, 2007

The tyranist's thoughts
It was easy to look forward to this movie. The first movie was an instant classic and is now the movie by which all other pirate films will be defined for a very long time, much the same way Captain Blood set the stage for so very, very long. The second, was not quite a complete movie, but served really to set up this third entry. Having seen both of those, seeing the third movie wasn't really optional.
And I like pirates. Always have since the first time I read Treasure Island as a wee boy.
Rish summarised this one very well. There were a huge number of characters and plots to follow and get wrapped up here and they did an exceptional job of closing up pretty much everything. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was time very well spent. Rather than spend time rehashing the broader points that Rish has already covered, I think I'll just mention a few of my favoured smaller bits while trying not to spoil anything.
I liked the crabs a great deal.
Norrington's actions when he realised who his friends were touched me.
Davy Jones' moments of humanity were very nice.
Elizabeth Swan looked stunning in black.
The post-credits coda was perfect.
The pirate gathering was a vision.
The opening musical number was stirring.
There were more, but I'm going to wrap this up by just saying that the movie deserves to be seen and loved.
Posted: July 4, 2007

Total Skulls: 7

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?