Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!

Finally got to see Pirates 3 tonight and I'm left feeling very similar to how I felt coming out of Spider-Man 3. I think the producers shot for the moon and flew right over it. Some things worked, but overall too much of it felt unnecessary.

Now having seen how 2 and 3 played out, I'm convinced more than ever that doing them together was a mistake. You had two decent plot stories and that got drawn out too long and then rushed to have them conclude. #2 should have focused on Davy Jones, his chest and trying to defeat him. You could have Barbosa come back in that one and help Jack defeat Jones. In the end, you have Barbosa stab Jones' heart and have him taking over the Dutchman. Then #3 should have been the pirate lords banding together to take on the East India Company. Beckett demise in this one, although visually cool, was rather anticlimatic.

As it was, the beginning of this film, while it didn't drag seemed to be a lot of unnecessary events. Too many changing alliances without enough payoff for them. I also wasn't crazy about the multiple Jacks. That concept might sound ok, but didn't play out well. The film is almost redeemed by the heart-pounding battle between the Pearl and the Dutchman. Initially I thought it was going to be lousy what with Elizabeth's Braveheart speech and just a flurry of bodies and gunfire that is a cliche of any war film. But then they did a nice job of focusing on the individual fights which is what I wanted to see. And yes, as ridiculous as it was, I enjoyed the mid-battle marriage.

Ulimately, At World's End and Dead Man's Chest abandoned a lot of what was so charming about the original. The action was simple swordfighting between combatants and done with a sly wink so as not to take it too serious. That balance between action and humor presented in a genre that audiences hadn't seen in a while made it a winning combination. I think the reason why the second one was so successful (besides there not being a lot of competition) was that it had a lot of cartoonish action that the kids could appreciate (I still don't like the scenes with Jack and the savages). This third one won't earn as much because the kids will be bored by all the backstabbing.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. If you've seen the first two, you owe it to yourself to see Captain Jack one more time. There's enough humor and action to keep you pleased (I loved Jack's "telescope envy"), but probably doesn't have the repeat viewing appeal that the first did, which allowed this to be such a successful franchise in the first place.

Grade: B