Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

One of the most anticipated films of the packed summer of 2007, in which I got a lot of Depp, a fierce Keira, the pre-proclaimed Chow Yun-Fat, and finally, after a clearly defined happy ending, we go home. Or not? Pirates turned out to be an unexpectedly unpredictable piece. Things that seemed clear and predetermined ended up a bit different, and the creators, even after getting stuck multiple times in the beginning, finally came up with an unforgettable finale. I admit, in the first half, I was disappointed, and several times I caught myself thinking that if the whole movie ended in a similar manner, I would consider the third part of the series a missed opportunity. The dialogues were occasionally strongly amusing and half-hearted, Sao Feng's behavior illogical, and everything was saved by Depp, who confirmed that he will never disappoint. But Verbinski didn't forget to direct, and moreover, he brought in semi-god Hans Zimmer to collaborate, who unleashed hell with his variation on Morricone's battle compositions, which lasted almost an hour. The final battle in the whirlwind is an incredible spectacle that takes your breath away, and all the events that frame it, Verbinski keeps under control even where other directors would easily lose their teeth (Elizabeth's speech to the pirates). And I wouldn't have believed that the ending of this trilogy would move me to tears before the screening. The Flying Dutchman still sails, and Pirates of the Caribbean won't become a trilogy that will change cinematography. But few will imitate its entertainment value. (30/05/2007)

I didn't mind the length of the film, but rather its momentary lack of clarity. However, I was staring with my mouth open the whole time, waiting to see what would come next, and having fun. The conclusion of the trilogy is worthy if unnecessarily long. And I wasn’t able to properly orient myself in the plot until the second time I watched it.__P.S. Orlando Bloom is a fool.__P.P.S. Because of the final bombastic three-quarters of an hour, it never ceases to annoy me that I didn't see the third Pirates in the movie theater. (04/06/2009)

A beautifully sentimental ending, which somewhat saved the overall impression that was too drawn out and lacking the magic of the first film. It's just too much of a blockbuster now, a money-making machine, and it shows. The actors are great, Orlando Bloom is probably the most unbearable of all his roles here, and the special effects are beautiful, but that's already kind of standard. (14/04/2015)

You have to give it to the third Pirates movie: you can see and hear each and every dollar in it. Really loudly. Which is unusual in popcorn movies lately. Production design, effects, Zimmer’s music, the camerawork... On the technical side, almost nothing to fault. The running time certainly is over-long, there isn’t much of a screenplay and so it dwells in the “everybody plotting against everybody else" bracket. But where part two dawdled about in androgynous family entertainment going nowhere, here the Pirates have become darker and the protagonists have moved from the black and white into the gray character zone where nobody wears a halo. And that’s good, because hand in hand with it becoming more “serious", there is less humor, mainly of the infantile type. Not that it disappeared completely, but it isn’t humor at all costs like last time. And also the Jack character takes a rear seat, which is a significant improvement and does much to rehabilitate the Sparrow figure itself. The space left by him is taken up more than skillfully by Rush. And still, we get humor; “Larry" is a Monty Python caliber gag. It mainly depends what you want out of the third Pirates - if it’s some harmless way of spending time with the whole family, like the first two parts, then you will be disappointed. If it’s technically precise viewing that, despite a few little flaws (or sometimes huge ones - pointless storylines, animal escapades, multiJack etc.), is bursting with just the right pirate feel to it, then you could give this episode a go... And the neat homage to Leone and Morricone warms the heart. (24/05/2007)

Almost three hours of mismanaged megalomania that has nothing to do with good entertainment. Verbinski couldn't pull off the digital ridiculousness, so he just put scenes together scenes one after the other without any invention. There is an incredible mess between the characters, the backstabbing gets boring after a while, and the amount of perspective inherent in the previous two films is sorely lacking. If it were half an hour shorter, it would be the blockbuster of the year, but this is a pompous bore that grabs your attention only with a reference to Leone and a funny cameo by Keith Richards. (30/11/2007)