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SYNOPSIS:
Just when he's needed most, Captain Jack Sparrow, that witty
and wily charmer of a pirate is trapped on a sea of sand in
Davy Jones' Locker. In an increasingly shaky alliance, Will
Turner, Elizabeth Swann and Captain Barbossa begin a desperate
quest to find and rescue him. Captain Jack's the last of the
nine Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court who must come together
united in one last stand to preserve the freedom-loving pirates'
way of life. From exotic Singapore to World's End and beyond
from Shipwreck Island to a titanic battle, this adventure's
filled with over-the-edge action, irreverent humour and seafaring
myth and magic. Everything has led to this twisting, turning,
wild swashbuckling ride in this final chapter of the Pirates
of the Caribbean trilogy.
MOVIE REVIEW:
In
the tradition of “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The
Matrix Revolutions”, “Pirates of the Caribbean:
At World’s End” inherits all the negative aspects
of the former aside from some amazing technical achievements
ever seen on screen this year.
Based
on the ever-popular theme park ride, the first Pirates was
a stand-alone, fantasy-action sword-buckling adventure that
had audience in awe with the wacky Captain Jack Sparrow and
its silly antics. But with the enormous box-office gains,
director Gore Verbinski was again commissioned by Disney and
producer Jerry Bruckheimer to do a back-to-back sequel to
the original 2003 hit.
I seriously
doubt you can follow the plot if you haven’t caught
the second instalment. So I got to assume you had caught the
prior episode. Even so, it doesn’t help much. If you
recall, Sparrow was swallowed by a gigantic “sotong”
like monster and it ends with a cliffhanger with a certain
character being revived towards the end.
“Pirates
of the Carribean: At World’s End” is a continuation
from there, everything looks bigger, sounds louder and the
cast grew as well. Sounds positive enough however the biggest
problem lies in the incoherent plot and it gets murkier by
the minute. To summarise, all I can remember after 170 minutes
of running time is everybody is chasing after everybody. Map?
Compass? Davy Jones? Voodoo-witch? The original protagonists,
Cpt Jack, Will and Elizabeth becomes nothing more liked prolonged
cameos. It comes to a point that nothing matters anymore,
just show me the dazzling FX which the ILM wizards have painstakingly
conjured.
Not
forgetting the elaborate set design, as a matter of fact,
the opening scene of colonial times Singapore is quite a gem.
The rich score by Hans Zimmer is soothing to the ears and
the bunch of merry cast including new additions, Chow Yun-Fat
as Captain Sao Feng and the cameo of Rolling Stones’
Keith Richards adds to the eye-candy extravaganza.
For
a much touted summer blockbuster and the closing chapter of
a much-loved franchise, “Pirates of the Carribean: At
World’s End” offers plenty of talk and little
sword-buckling adventure. One thing follows another pathetically
the script no longer engaged the attention of the audience.
I can’t wait for the director’s cut, that is if
Gore Verbinski decides to stream his pirates’ chapters
into a single 3 hours special edition.
Don’t
be in a hurry to pop out the disc, stay tuned after the credits,
there’s a bittersweet ending awaiting you.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Disc one consists of the movie itself, upcoming Disney
trailers and also Bloopers of the Caribbean which
runs an approximate 5 minutes. The director commentary is
surprisingly missing. There might be a better version in the
pipeline. Blu-ray perhaps. No one can tell.
Disc Two is loaded with the following extras:
Keith & the Captain: On set with Johnny Depp and
the Rock Legend – Depp has mentioned numerous
times that his inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow comes
from the legendary Keith Richards. In this segment, we took
a look behind the scenes where Richards is on set shooting
his scenes and playing with his onset guitar. Priceless.
Deleted
Scenes with optional commentary by director Gore Verbinski
– There are only 2 short scenes that were excised from
the movie. You can see them in their finished glory right
here. Given the excessive running time, it doesn’t make
much of a difference whether they are removed or not.
Anatomy
of a Scene: The Maelstrom – My favourite segment
in disc 2 which runs an approximate 19 minutes. The impressive
action and effects-filled sequence in POTC3 is given an extensive
coverage, from the cast to the director to the producer and
also the effects crew, everyone has their fair share of thoughts
and the behind-the-scenes is definitely an eye-opener.
The
Tale of Many Jacks - This four minutes feature introduced
audience to how the imaginative sequence was shot. Depp was
replicated through digital effects and doubles. Too bad it’s
his silly imitation of a chicken that left the deepest impression.
The
World of Chow Yun Fat – One of Asia’s
most prominent actor gets a 4 minutes tribute here. Include
interviews from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and fellow cast
member Orlando Bloom who finds fat-gor quite a joker.
The
Pirate Maestro: The Music of Hans Zimmer –
Hans who looked like a shady, ragged pirate is the man behind
the excellent score of the series’ last 2 instalments.
Listen to his thoughts on how he created his compositions
in this 10 minutes long feature.
Hoist
the Colours – Hans Zimmer is back yet again
talking about how the inspiration of the opening theme, “Hoist
the Colours” came from.
Inside
the Brethren Court – If you are interested
to know more about individual characters’ bios and origins
etc, you might love this interactive feature.
Masters
of Designs – Five individual features which
covered everything from the set designs, costumes, creature
design and props. Be enlightened by how the crew did the authentic
looking Singapore set and also Sao Feng’s map.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The pirates sure looked unkempt and appearance wise, it’s
dirt-filled. But the visual of this DVD is sharp, clean and
crisp although some of the night shots are pretty murky. I
wonder if it’s intentionally meant to be so. But overall,
it’s an above average transfer.
Featuring
a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, dialogue, which constitutes
a huge portion of the movie, is loud and clear. The bombastic
action sequences are mind-blowing to the ears and the rear
speakers are pretty active too.
PARTING THOUGHTS:
The extreme
long running time of “Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s
End” makes it a drag to sit through. But this 2-disc
edition scores high on the special features and the technical
aspects of the movie is simply marvelous. A good demo dvd
for your home theater system overall.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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