The unstoppable force that is the Pirates of the Caribbean reaches its supposed climax with At World's End, which will be looking to pip its predecessor at the world's box office - Curse of the Black Pearl is the third most successful film of all time. Such is the inbuilt fanbase of franchises such as this that they are the type of film that Hollywood regards as critic-proof. If you make it, they will come, and audiences will no doubt flock in droves to see it on opening weekend.
The good news is that diehard pirate fans will not be disappointed: the sailaway success of the three films has been assured by a team that looks to have put right the faults that dogged the second film, which for all of its lavish set-pieces came across as The Phantom Menace of the trilogy, and was an exercise in dazzling rather than necessarily engaging the audience. At World's End, on the other hand, returns to the mix that made the original such a genuine breath of fresh air: the humour is back, the scenes are shorter, and the pace is far more effective.
Captain Jack is missing presumed dead, and it's the job of Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner and the returning Captain Barbossa and their crew to go to the underworld and find him. Where would such series be if death actually meant death? Confined to a scizophrenic netherworld, Captain Jack only has multitude version of himself for company, and takes some persuasion to return to the real high seas.
Once relative order is restored, the putative heroes find several issues to resolve: not least the arrival of a mysterious and dangerous group of Oriental pirates (ruled by Chow Yun-Fat), the traditionally slimy English colonists (led by the impressively nasty Tom Hollander), and worst of all Davy Jones himself, whose fate takes up the last section of the film. Along the way there is also plenty of scope for unexpected treachery.
Everyone returns for this final fling - even Stellan Skarsgard is back as Will's long-dead father - and the myriad plots do at times threaten to bring down the whole hulking mass. At 169 minutes long, it's the longest film of the trio by some length, and parents and children alike may well find their patience tested as the third hour creaks over the horizon.
But this time around few of the scenes outlast their welcome, and the continual sniping between Sparrow and Barbossa over who should actually captain the Black Pearl is very amusing, helping to gloss over the inevitable plot-driven complexities. Keith Richards' appearance is short and relatively sweet, and the set designers have lavished money on making this arguably the year's greatest spectacle: if they won an Oscar for The Curse of the Black Pearl, it's going to take something extraordinary to stop them winning again. A series that potentially looked on the ropes midway through has been revived for an appealing, and no doubt hugely lucrative, finale.
Paul Hurley
