PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END
2-Disc Limited Edition
DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 169 minutes, two disc set, blooper reel, deleted scenes, multiple featurettes

VIDEO: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
AUDIO: English, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

STUDIO: Walt Disney Pictures/ Jerry Bruckheimer Films
RELEASE DATE: 12-4-2007

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END is the second part of the story begun in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST. The crew of the Black Pearl along with a resurrected Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) sail off the edge of the world to bring back Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and the black Pearl from the land of the dead aka Davey Jones Locker. Once they do that, they must unite the pirate lords to stop Davey Jones and the British (the East India Company) who want to destroy all pirates.

The third installment in the series is fun and yet it is a little too long (168 minutes) by about at least 20 minutes. The action sequences are the strongest thing in this film wheher it is at the start of the film or the very long climatic battle. I did like the Spaghetti Western homage. Chow Yun Fat is nice to see in another film, but I wish he was in it for longer. The humor in it is plenty and great. A few characters do die and you have at least two ways to do another sequel. Also watch the last bit at the end of the end credits. Does this live up to the summer popcorn blockbuster movies before it? Yes. Is it a critic friendly film? No. It is more of one for the fans and the audience in general.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
DISC 1- The only extra is a blooper reel. Too bad teh DVD doesn't have a director's audio commentary.

DISC 2- The two breif deleted scenes (with optional audio commentary by Director Gore Verbinski) are nice to watch, but they add nothing to the film. The other extras are a series of featurettes. The best two are: KEITH & THE CAPTAIN: ON SET WITH JOHNNY DEPP AND THE ROCK LEGEND- A behind-the-scenes look at Keith Richards' two day filming stint featuring interviews with Keith, Johnny Depp, and others (including a guitar maker). ANATOMY OF A SCENE- THE MALESTROM: a deatailed look at the production and post-production work of the key climatic fight scene. other featurettes are: THE TALE OF MANY JACKS- how they filmed the scenes with Johnny Depp playing multiple Jack Sparrows. THE WORLD OF CHOW YUN-FAT: a too brief and too fluffy piece on Chow Yun-Fat's work in the film. INSIDE THE BRETHREN COURT- get info on all of the lords of the pirate court. THE PIRATE MAESTRO: THE MUSIC OF HANS ZIMMER- behind the scenes of recording the score for the third film. HOIST THE COLOURS- The story behind the pirate song. MASTERS OF DESIGN- CREATING THE PIRATES' WORLD: a series of five featurettes of a few design people for the third film: Jim Byrkit: Sao Feng's Map Crash McCreary: The Cursed Crew Rick Heinrichs: Singapore Penny Rose: Captain Teague's Costume Kris Peck: The Pirate Code Book

Too bad the special edition doesn't include trailers for the third film or the other ones. The lack of an audio commentary is also disappointing. The behind-the-scenes featurettes for DEAD MAN'S CHEST give more depth into the production than the ones for AT WORLD'S END.

FINAL ANALYSIS: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END is a great end to the trilogy withe few entertaining extras. Too bad the extras aren't as great as the ones on the DEAD MAN'S CHEST set.

this DVD review is (c)11-27-2007 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  


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