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Last night Suzie_Q and I went to see the final installment of Pirates of the Caribbean ’At World’s End’ (surprisingly not filmed at the World’s End Inn in Dorset). Dorking Halls cinema charges only £3 each on a Monday night - a reasonable charge compared with Crawley Cineworld where it’s almost cheaper to buy a brand new latest release DVD than two tickets to a film. One of the problems with turning thirty is that (other than evolving into a grumpy old man) you can barely remember films you watched last year, so I had to re-hire both previous films to watch over the weekend to refresh my memory on the plot. Having now completed the trilogy over a number of days I find myself with more unanswered questions than I started out with at the begining of the second film - the most consistent of which is “Why is the little monkey STILL undead?”.

There can be no doubt that the first film was pretty good fun (aside from Keira Knightley’s usual wooden acting), thanks to Captain Jack it was mildly amusing yet slightly dark with clear boundaries between good and evil. The second and third films are probably more complicated than the Matrix trilogy, the plot twists and double crossing become ludicrously absurd and the plot completely disappears. Last night’s ‘At World’s End’ finale had too much going on, as if the writers had taken on more than they had bargained for, the action and effects were great as usual, Johnny Depp probably the only thing keeping it all afloat, but the film ends too quickly with far too many unanswered questions (don’t read them if you haven’t seen the film yet!):

• Why didn’t somebody tell Calypso that her black biro was leaking in either of the last two films?
• What happened to Davy Jones after he fell overboard following the heart stabbing? 
• What happened to Calypso at the end of the film - where did the storm and her powers go?
• Who thought naming a sea goddess after those little plastic 10p drinks from the corner shop was a good idea?
• Was that it for Norrington - death and no recognition or attempted revival from the afterlife?
• What’s to stop Elizabeth going out to sea once an evening to meet Will Turner?
• Who’s Elizabeth left with - no father, a husband to see just once every ten years and no friends or family?
• How did Will Turner manage to be all romantic and loving having had his heart removed (that’s why Davy removed his after all)?
• Why didn’t the battleship fire it’s triple rows of cannons at the end - it would still have defeated both ships?

I suspect the writers are thinking of leaving the door open for a fourth or fifth movie, the rollercoaster of promotional marketing that the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ brand has become is too important to kill off completely… even if the story writers have lost the plot. Having just re-read my review of Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man’s Chest I see that my opinion is still virtually the same after film number three - how reassuring…

Technorati Tags: dorking, cinema, pirates, pirates of the caribbean, johnny depp, keira knightley, davy jones, orlando bloom

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