Critical Mass - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
(Originally published at the Youth Ministry Exchange)
In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) combine forces with their former adversary, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in order to find Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and rescue him from Davy Jones' Locker. In the meantime, Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) has conscripted Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the crew of the Flying Dutchman into service of the East India Trading Company in order to control the seas. This leads to a final battle between the Pirate Lords from around the world and Lord Cutler's armada.
At World's End is another summer blockbuster from Gore Verbinski and Walt Disney Pictures. With each subsequent Pirates movie, Verbinski has added larger setpieces and more elaborate CGI work, culminating in a beautifully made movie with no shortage of action and breathtaking visuals.
All the characters from the first two movies are back in this installment, even a couple of relatively minor side characters from Curse of the Black Pearl. Each of the actors step easily in to their previous roles, and the new actors introduced into this story work well with the existing cast. There are a great many characters to keep track of in the film, including a guest role by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones as the keeper of the Pirate Code.
The downside to having the number of characters is that it takes a LONG time to tell the story. The running time of this film is two hours and 48 minutes, which is a great deal of time to sit in a movie theater. Add in the five trailers for new films shown beforehand, and it made for about a three hour viewing time.
The length and breadth of the movie seemed to slow it down. With so many characters to keep tabs on and so many places to see, there was almost too much going on. The film seemed to get dragged down by its own weight. The writing for this film was not a tight as the first Pirates movie, and the action sequences not as exciting as the second film. There were great moments and lines in the film, but they seemed to be much farther apart than in the first two pictures. The cameo by Keith Richards was interesting to see, but for people who know who he is it can take them out of the film for a moment. For those who don't know who he is, the reaction was "Hey, who's that old guy supposed to be?"
From a Christian perspective, the biggest downside to the film is the supernatural overtone throughout the movie. The thought that they could bring Jack back from the dead and seeing the spirits in the underworld go against the Christian worldview. Also, one of the characters is revealed to be a spirit trapped in a human body. If youth are able to see this as the fantasy that it is, it shouldn't affect them. There is no adverse language or sex in the film, the PG-13 rating is earned for violence and intensity in some parts.
Overall, this film rates a solid "meh" from me. It was a decent film, but I feel that it failed to live up to the hype that the ending of the second film generated. For fans of the first two movies, it is a must see to simply complete the storyline. It was a nearly three hour epic that failed to capture some of what made the first two films so enjoyable. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will no doubt make a great deal of money, but with so many other blockbuster films to be released during this busy summer it will have a difficult time standing out.