Avast ye mateys!

Back in 2003, nobody expected much of anything from a film called Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl. After all, the movie was based on a Disney theme park ride, and the last film to follow that model(The Country Bears) was a disaster. Add to that the fact that pirate genre was pretty much dead in the water(no pun intended), and you had all the makings of a colossal flop. Then the unexpected happened: the movie was good. You had a brisk, fast paced script peppered with lots of humor, and some very good CGI, but the one element that made the whole thing work was the character of Captain Jack Sparrow, played masterfully by Johnny Depp. Word has it that studio heads were expecting a brave, daring type of swashbuckler, never afraid to stare danger and death in the face, but were aghast at what they got: a loopy, somewhat sexually ambiguous type of character who would just as soon run than fight. Depp's gamble turned out to be the film's saving grace, and he even earned an Oscar nomination. The film earned more that $400 million worldwide and sparked a renewed interest in adventures on the high seas.

As with any movie that does much better than unexpected, Hollywood was very eager to give audience a follow up to this one, but one thing that may have worked against them was that since nobody expected the film to do well, the idea of a sequel was never throughly planned out. When it came time to film the sequel, Dead Man's Chest, director Gore Verbinski threw in a lot more than should have been. DMC opened to less than steller reviews in the summer of 2006. Much of the light hearted banter was missing from the script, and Captain Jack seemed to be off a step;nevertheless, the movie still posted a $132 million dollar opening weekend and left fans with one hell of a cliffhanger, which now brings us to the trifecta of this saga: At World's End.

When we last left off, the crew of the Black Pearl, led by Will Turner(Orlando Bloom, who is contractually obligated to only appear in movies where he fights with a sword) and Elizabeth Swann(Keira Knightly) decided to sail to the ends of the earth to rescue Jack Sparrow, who, along with the Pearl, was dragged down to an otherwordly place known as Davy Jones Locker. To accomplish this feat, they required the assistance of the once thought dead Captain Barbosa(Geoffery Rush), who was brought back to life by the soothsayer Tia Dalma(Naomie Harris), whose true identity is a key point of the film. The murderous Davy Jones(Bill Nighy) and his barnacled crew is now under the command of the East India Trading comany, led by Lord Cutler Beckett(Tom Hollander) who is using Jones to rid the world of all pirates. But wait, there's more. It turns out that all the pirate lords of the world have been summoned to a big meeting to decide the course of action that will ultimately determine their fate. There's lots of expositional dialouge about The Bretheren Court, nine pieces of eight, and things of that nature. But wait, there's more. Everybody in this film seems to have their own agenda, and there are so many double crosses, it's hard to tell who is on whose side. Will Turner makes a back alley deal with the pirate lord Sao Feng(a woefully undersused Chow Yun Fat) to keep a promise to a close relative, Feng is double crossed by the EITC, and Sparrow ends up making one deal after another to try to keep his own hide of out as much trouble as possible.

Jack Sparrow gets back to being his usual nutty self, especially during his time in Davy Jones Locker, which is somewhat like purgatory. The film also benefits from the return of Barbosa, and Rush brings much flavor to whatever scene he's in. There's also the much talked about cameo by Rolling Stones band member Keith Richards, who plays Jack Sparrow's father, Captain Teague. Rumor has it that Depp used Richards as a template for the character of Sparrow. We all know that Richards hasn't been right in the head for a while now, so there may be some truth to that. Knightley gets quite a bit to do in this third installment, and her character really gets to shine at times. Sadly, we don't get much of Governor Weatherbee Swann(Jonathan Pryce) or James Norrington(Jack Davenport), but Stellen Skarsgard get to play a key part as Bootstrap Bill Turner.

At an ass numbing 2 hours and 45 minutes, everything and the kitchen sink has been thrown in for what's presumed to be the final chapter in this saga. The film ends with a hint of a part 4, but at the same time, it's closed ended enough for this one to be the end. Overall, I give it 3 stars.