The Plot:

  Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and the East India Trading Company are planning to rid the world of pirates once and for all. To do it they will use their leverage against Captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) who sails the dreaded Flying Dutchman. Beckett plans to use Jones and the Dutchman to destroy the pirates one by one if need be, though he’d rather do it in one fail swoop.
  Meanwhile our heroes Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) travel to Singapore to obtain maps that will led them to and from Davy Jones’ Locker, where Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) now spends eternity. The pirates and crew will need Captain Jack if they are to meet with the Pirate Lords from the “four corners” of the earth, and deal with the threat of the Beckett-Jones alliance.
  Years ago the Pirate Lords convened and bound Calypso, the fury of the sea, into human form so that men, specifically pirates, could rule the sea. But it seems that now may be a good time to release Calypso, as she may be the only thing capable of stopping Jones, her former lover.

The Point:

  Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is the third and likely the last (at least don’t expect Depp or Bloom to reprise their roles) film in a franchise that I have enjoyed since first I saw it. The universe in which these stories take place seems to come directly from the imaginations of the sailors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a kid I loved tales of pirates and watching the pirate movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Disney pays tribute to films of those days with a few modern twists of technology.
  A bunch of people told me that they loved Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, but weren’t so hip on last summer’s sequel Dead Man’s Chest. Many of these same people, like me, grew up loving Star Wars but then baulked at Lucas’ prequels for being “kid’s movies.” To that I say, “Wake up.” These are kid’s movies, perhaps older kids, but kids just the same. After all Curse of the Black Pearl had creepy skeletons and all that other “weird” stuff too.
  I’m not going to reveal much about the plot because I simply don’t want to spoil it. If you’ve watched the other two movies you realize that heroes (or villains) never really die, treasure is never really gained (our heroes have a tendency to loose it) and endings leave you wanting to know what happens next. All of this holds true for At World’s End. Of course, there are also healthy smatterings of weirdness and frivolity. One such instance is Jack Sparrow who is apparently going mad in Davy Jones locker (think the restaurant scene from Being John Malkovich only crazier). Multiple Sparrows argue over who is the rightfull captain of the Black Pearl to hilarious effect.
  There were some parts of this movie that were not only cool, they were downright awesome. Not the least of these was the mega fight scene near the end. Suffice it to say that this is probably the best ship-to-ship combat scene of any pirate movie anywhere. What else can you say about a duel in which two pirate ships fire at each other while the crews battle it out all the while they’re spinning down a giant whirlpool. Disney can’t hit a home run everytime, but this was definitely a grand slam.