Thursday, June 7, 2007

Review: At World's End


Disney's latest installment of its Pirates of the Caribbean Series: At World's End though entertaining falls short of the original, Curse of the Black Pearl. What I enjoyed most about the original was the conflict between Captain Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) for the Black Pearl. Their tug-of-war and witty exchange made the first movie for me. The relative absence of Barbossa from Dead Man's Chest, the second film in the series, was disappointing and I looked forward to his reinsertion into the storyline. Unfortunately, the dizzying pace of the plot and the over-saturation of characters pushed me into a sensory overload. As an action-film enthusiast, I loathe to say that Jerry Bruckheimer packed in way too much action into close to three hours of film. As the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl swirl around a whirlpool in the middle of the ocean firing cannons in battle with characters swinging back and forth between ships while sword fighting, I found myself wondering "Is all this really necessary?" The problems listed above are only an issue in the theatre however. I am looking forward to the On Demand release. I will be able to appreciate the film better when I can pause and rewind as necessary.

Although Disney presents a warm and fuzzy version of pirates, their history is sordid to say the least. If you are interested in learning a little about real Caribbean pirates who were generally thieving, murdering, slave traders, check out The History Channel's series: True Caribbean Pirates: Behind the Scenes scheduled to air July 9th.

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