Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann and the others are back for the obligatory third film in the Pirates franchise, and the patchiest of the lot.
Then, POW! The film shifts gear for the finale and pretty much makes all that came before pretty redundant. The last 45 minutes or so are filled with thrilling swashbuckling moments, but also the most emotionally powerful scenes in the entire franchise. Rather than a collection of set pieces the action stays in one place and just bumps it up a notch every couple of minutes. The meta-narrative is wound up beautifully and one wonders if they could have simply used this act at the end of the second film and saved us all two hours of torture.
I read an interview with Verbinski during the filming of the sequels where he admitted that the script was constantly in flux, and this is certainly apparent in At World’s End. The only people involved in the production who seem certain of their aims are the costume and set designers. Everyone else, from the writers to the directors to the actors seems to be more than a little lost.