Cinema - Pirates of the Caribbean 3

The third instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, ‘At World’s End’, got pretty slated by most of the journalists who reviewed it: it was attacked for being too convoluted, too vacuous, too action packed, and too silly. Well, what did they expect? It’s a pirate movie, for god’s sake, and the pay-off episode of a trilogy, to boot. The public voted their assessment with more bums on seats than might have been expected: the film has grossed nearly a billion dollars worldwide (putting it in the top five highest earners ever) and opened in more Stateside cinemas (4,362) than any film before it. A typical Hollywood story: critics love hating it, the shall-we-say-less-discerning public loves loving it, loads of money in the coffers, everyone’s happy. Then, finally, after two months, it comes to the All Saints.

Is it worth going into the plot? Oh, alright then. Johnny Depp plays pirate leader Captain Jack like an incongruous 18th century merger between Keith Richards and Erroll Flynn. When the East India Company decides to rid the world of the scourge of piracy, the crew of the Black Pearl rescue him from Davy Jones’ locker. He helps unite the world’s pirates to confront the danger, and the mother of all sea-battles ensues. If you enjoy arthouse dramas, like most film critics do, avoid this one like a case of scurvy. If you enjoy bloated blockbusters with expensive special effects, that rely more on pastiche than style, go see it. There’s plenty of opportunity: it’s showing three nights running.  DL