Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End by James Ellaby

Coming out at a time when Star Wars is celebrating its 30th anniversary, At World's End brings to an end the latest trilogy's attempt to replicate the success of George Lucas' original franchise. More than any of the others, Pirates Of The Caribbean owes a lot to it, taking many plot devices as well as its sense of fun from a galaxy far, far away. Unfortunately, by the climax of this convoluted and overlong third film, it's fallen way short of actually even competing with Star Wars.

The first Pirates film, The Curse Of The Black Pearl, was a hugely successful summer blockbuster, despite having the unpromising premise of being based on a ride at Disney themeparks. Driven along by a charismatic lead turn by Johnny Depp, a bombastic soundtrack, great special effects and just a lot of fun and adventure, it was an antidote to several other big movies that came out at the time and took themselves far too seriously.

Had they left it there, it would have been remembered as one of the best family action movies of the 21st Century so far, but of course the lure of extra merchandising opportunities brought back Captain Jack Sparrow and Co for another two films. Dead Man's Chest was another rollicking adventure, but the warning signs were there as various plot lines started to wrap themselves around the film like Davy Jones' tentacles. The Star Wars comparisons only increased, with Han Solo-esque Sparrow ending the second film dead, rather than encased in carbonite, but still needing rescuing by his fellow good guys.

So that's the premise for the start of At World's End, with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) teaming up with back-from-the-dead-bad-guy-from-the-first-film Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to go to Davy Jones' Locker and bring back Jack. Instead of Jabba's palace, Gore Verbinski starts off the film in the even more murky world of pirate-infested Singapore, with Chow Yun Fat introduced as one of the Pirate Lords, who need to come together to fight the evil power of the East India Trading Company.

Are you confused yet? The first twenty minutes are excellent, with an atmospheric and slightly shocking opening scene (certainly for a family film) followed by a typically exciting and entertaining fight scene in Singapore. However, when we find Sparrow trapped in the maddening world of the Locker, alongside rocks that turn into crabs and numerous clones of himself, the film starts to lurch alarmingly. The scene is clearly trying to be whimsical, important and surreal all at the same time, but just comes off like a bad music video and, for the first time, you start to tire of Depp's fey fripperies.

At World's End never really gets going until they return from the bewildering land of the dead, but when they do, the plot starts to unravel as characters swap sides, pursue hidden agendas and generally talk nonsense. None more so than Tia Dalma, the mysterious 'witch' who brought Barbossa back from the dead at the end of the last film, and talks a load of confusing gibberish throughout here, not helped by the fact that her heavy accent means that you can only understand one word in every three that she says.

The convoluted plot twists and the presence of Dalma brings unfortunate echoes of another blockbuster trilogy that Pirates would (or at least should) have wanted to avoid emulating at all costs. The Matrix had a fun and entertaining first film, followed by two sequels with spectacular set-pieces but completely destroyed by a plot that no-one understood of cared about, full of annoying characters making long speeches that only made things more confusing and irritating. At times, At World's End teeters dangerously on the drink of dragging the Pirates trilogy down to those levels.

With a spectacular climactic battle in the swirling waters of a maelstrom, Verbinski does manage to pull the franchise to safety (despite the most ludicrous wedding in cinematic history taking place in the middle of the carnage), and all of the plot lines do get worked out in quite a satisfying way, making for an ending that isn't completely happy and Disneyfied, but works well as an ending rather than just the promise of more (though it certainly doesn't close off any opportunities for Pirates 4). There's plenty to enjoy here, not least Keith Richards' cameo as Jack's dad (he barely even needed a costume), as well as another eccentric performance from Depp, but At The World's End is still a badly flawed finale that, unlike say, Return Of The Jedi, leaves you not really caring about what happens to its characters.