The crew manages to land an audience with Feng, only to have soldiers in the employ of the East India Trading Company attack the stronghold. Both the ragtag crew and Feng's men are able to escape, only to discover that Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) has won control over Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and is using him in his war against the pirates. Now the crew must rescue Jack and unite the Pirate Lords against Beckett's rule of the high seas.
With so many plotlines going on, At World's End can get really confusing, really quick. While everything snaps together and makes perfect sense in the end, most of the movie is a spinning whirl of chaos as it jumps from plotline to plotline. The introduction of the Pirate Lords is a fine twist, though it feels like it comes out of left field. Things get especially confusing when the movie moves from the swashbuckling formula of the first two into a more fantasy-steeped plot involving a trapped goddess. However, everything ties together and makes sense in the end; something that should be credited to Gore Verbinski's direction. As complex as plotlines get, it is easy to see how the movie could completely derail.
The real star of the movie is, of course, Johnny Depp. As with the first two movies, he practically steals every scene he appears in. Geoffrey Rush does an outstanding job and manages to steal a few scenes himself. The interaction between the two makes for some really fun scenes, especially as they jockey for command of the Black Pearl.
Most of the extras are nice glimpses behind the creative process. They're nothing that hasn't already been shown in other DVD's, but it is always fun to see the lengths some productions go to. The best of the bunch is "Anatomy of a Scene," which details the production behind the Maelstrom scene. Everything from the conceptualization to the construction of two massive sets and coordination of stunts is covered.
Another fun feature is "Keith and the Captain." This short follows Johnny Depp and Keith Richards as they share stories about the movie and how Depp used some of Richard's personality as an inspiration for his performance as Jack.
As a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is simply okay - especially when compared to the first movie. Though well acted and directed, the number of plotlines and introduction of some new elements does hurt the movie's flow. Still, it puts a nice cap on the trilogy and is worth a watch if just for that.
