Media Log 2: It Be The World's End As Ye Know It

TL;DR Letterboxd review here: https://letterboxd.com/scribbletoms/film/pirates-of-the-caribbean-at-worlds-end/

I started my watch through of the Pirates of the Caribbean last month, but because I didn't have the DVD (and still don't unfortunately), it took me a bit to get to 'At World's End' this year. And yeah! Great movie, definitely better than last week's Nic Cage film.

Though I'd seen 'Black Pearl' a few times already, and 'Dead Man's Chest' maybe once or twice, this was the first time I'd actually seen 'At World's End' all the way through. No, I haven't seen the next two either, and from what I've heard that may be for the best. That being said, I will admit this is probably the weakest of the original trilogy.

Not that there isn't cool stuff here! A lot of the afterlife stuff is handled in an interesting way, from being an interpretation of the edge of the world (ig the world of Pirates is flat?), to the visual of an endless desert. In fact, you can see a lot of elements that would later be used in director Gore Verbinski's later work, particularly 'Rango' (I get the feeling there's something similar in 'Cure for Wellness' but I haven't gotten around to seeing that yet). The entire pirate court, to me at least, is also just the culmination of everything we have seen and heard about this world - a room of bumbling idiots and backstabbers seeking nothing else but self-preservation. Also Keith Richards is here as Sparrow's dad, and that's just kinda neat.

But as soon as we get into that, we also have to get into the groups of pirates themselves, which is a bit of a mixed bag of interesting worldbuilding and design and just very strange stereotypes. The biggest shame out of all these probably ends up being Sao Feng (played by Chow Yun-fat). While I don't think I have the authority to comment on the accuracy of the Chinese pirates or if its a particularly negative portrayal, the most disappointing part of his presence is his screentime. Part of it is just the curse of being introduced in what's essentially the second part of a two-parter, but he dies so quickly and kinda awkwardly in the middle of the film. Yun-fat seemed like he was having a lot of fun with his performance, so it would've been nice to see him interact with everyone a bit more.

Also awkwardly placed is the whole deal with Calypso and Davy Jones. The reveal of Calypso's identity, along with their inevitable meeting is set up nicely in the last movie, but just as soon as she appears again it feels like it's pushed into your face every few minutes until she's freed and just kinda leaves the movie. Same sort of happens with the East India Trading Company, who have gained great control over the seas (mostly offscreen) and are then easily dispatched in like, two minutes during the last fifteen minutes. It felt like they couldn't find a way for these two plots to naturally conclude within the same film, and instead rushed them both out of the story.

That being said, I think this is the perfect resolution for Swann and Turner's character arcs. It's great seeing Swann find her independence and come into her own as a leader, and I'll certainly be interested to see if any of the films after lean into this characterisation (they probably won't). But I think its Turner's arc in this movie particularly that sticks out to me, grappling with the repercussions that his sacrifice to save his father will have on not just his own life, but the lives of those he loves.

Anyway this took me way too long to think about and write so I'm just gonna leave it here. Maybe not the best ending all things considered, but good pirate movie go brrr.