POTC At World's End Review

What a frustrating and at times incredibly boring experience!

I loved the first Pirates movie, The Curse Of The Black Pearl. Such a fun, fantastic breath of fresh air! It came out of nowhere. A film based on an admittedly good theme park ride!? But it was so entertaining, so well written, funny, exciting and a marvellous blend of the fantasy and the historical. So it makes a lot of money and we are promised 2 sequels! Fantastic!

But then they make the mistake of filming them back to back a la Matrix 2 and 3 and Back To The Future 2 and 3. Now I know there is the excuse of getting the full cast together for a prolonged period of time. But we end up with one really overlong movie split in two! Dead Man's Chest had its moments, the wheel fight, Jack's intro, Davey Jones seemless CGI etc but was disappointing compared with the first. The sense of fun seemed to be gone. But somehow I forgave the makers for the 2nd film because of the promise of this third installment.

What were they thinking? If you had told me they had drafted in new writers for these two films I would have believed you! And been a bit more understanding. But they didn't, the brilliant writers of the original are responsible for this hugely disappointing third installment. It is sooooo long! Probably having the running time of a Lord Of The Rings movie, but feels twice as long as each of them! And there was an intermission! Whose idea was this? I've never been to a movie where there has been an intermission! And I've been going to the cinema since 1973! I'll tell you whose idea it was, the concession makers! Oh yes! Intermission comes up, 200 people get up out of their seats and buy more ice creams, drinks and popcorn! They're all back in their seats and the movie re-commences! Concession sales doubled in every performance!

I have to say, the film started well, I really enjoyed the Singapore sequences, and they had me pretty much till just past the point when the are all safely out of Davey Jones's locker (Up is down etc) and then so much talking! So much plot! So much boredom! Get on with it! This is supposed to be a thrill ride, remember what it's based on. If the ride was like this movie, they would have to be giving people mouth to mouth two thirds of the way through the ride! Enough tea and chat, let's have some fighting!

And then it comes, pretty much from the point of Keith Richards' cameo onwards, we are back in winning territory. Great sea battle, nice moments. And some humour at last, and fighting! Someone should have trimmed at least half an hour from the very flabby mid-section (and I should know I sill have a very flabby mid-section!)

So my lowest mark yet. 2 and a half out of 5. Johnny you're a genuis but the writers dropped the ball and spent over an hour moaping around the floor looking for it!