Movie review: 'Pirates 3': Another sunken treasure, mate

Despite an insanely absurd and dizzying plot, “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” is the kind of sheer cinematic spectacle that kept my eyes wide open and a smile on my face for nearly three hours.

Out of the several blockbusters released so far this year, “Pirates 3,” is the one 2007 extravaganza I wouldn’t mind seeing again.

Johnny Depp returns as the drunkenly crafty Captain Jack Sparrow after being rescued from the Guadalupe Dunes (doubling as Davy Jones’ Locker/Purgatory) by our intrepid crew of scoundrels and scalawags.

Along the way to the prerequisite big, go-for-broke fantasy-action climax, which rivals the nice one in “Return of the King,” our “good” pirates must contend with an evil militarized corporation (the British East India Trade Company) and horrific sea monster pirates led by Davy Jones himself.

The Company, led by the villainous Lord Cutler Beckett, wants to stamp out piracy on the high seas, and there’s a chillingly good opening musical sequence here involving the execution of every man, woman and child believed a pirate or associated with pirates.

Then there’s the hilarious pirate conference that sends-up the “meeting of the five families” sequence in The Godfather. It’s here we’re introduced to Sparrow’s dad: Keith Richards, playing a pirate, who spouts off some rock star wisdom before strumming a few bars.

The visuals in “Pirates 3” are a grandiose feast that eclipse the vision presented in the earlier Pirate films. The new film captures the epic vision of “Star Wars,” the bursting bravado of a Michael Bay film, the period sumptuousness of Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” and the 18th century high seas adventure of the Errol Flynn classics “Captain Blood” and “The Sea Hawk.”

I love movies that can capture their own jaw-dropping universe within the bounds of a frame, and this movie does just that.

I also liked the story here, and thankfully, the effects serve the story and characters, instead of just showing off. (Witness the awkward, unnecessary and somewhat useless “mouse wheel,” “shishkabob” and “bone ball” set pieces in the second Pirates picture “Dead Man’s Chest”).

Here the action and effects sequences aren’t silly, tedious cartoon rip-offs but artfully rendered sequences that carry dramatic tension and are executed with wit and grand vision.

The film’s plot is as elaborate as the rigging of a pirate ship and as silly as a man with an octopus for a head. However, by the time we get to the end of the film, the gestalt of the Pirate films becomes as clear.

Aside from everything else, the main draw for me is the artistry of Johnny Depp, a modern day Charlie Chaplin. His facial/body language is hilarious and his expressions as rich as any classic Disney animated character. I also dig the concept of a lying, half-dazed scoundrel doing what he does best, essentially for good — basically a riff on the Han Solo archetype. It’s the same kind of rebels versus the

establishment dynamic that lies at the core of “Star Wars” and “The Godfather.”

It’s a shame Richards didn’t get more screen time and plot importance, (a la Sean Connery in “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade”), because he seems somewhat trivialized here — to exist as a mere punchline. But it’s still a memorable cameo for a punchline. Depp famously based Sparrow on the freewheeling swagger of the Rolling Stones guitarist.

The best aspects of the film deal with the human relationship elements, between the swashbuckling hero Will Turner and his effort to save his cursed father, Bootstrap Bill, and the subplot involving Davy Jones and his beloved Calypso, whose scorn turned the captain into a tentacled monstrosity.

Geoffrey Rush is also very good as foe-turned-friend Capt. Hector Barbossa and presents the same kind of brilliant scenery-chewing ham he was in the original “Pirates” film “Curse of the Black Pearl.” There’s a funny scene involving Sparrow, Barbossa and telescopes, which demonstrate the chemistry and artistry of Rush and Depp, both masters of the acting craft.

All in all, “At World’s End” is a summer movie that presents something truly spectacular and a fitting end to the Sparrow trilogy. The Pirate films may not carry the same kind of emotional authenticity and depth you’ll find in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but they do offer a fun time at the movies.

(Three stars out of four.)

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompocrecord.com.