Yesterday, Kiddo and I got out to soak up Pirates 3. It was enjoyable, but it suffered from the same thing that plagued the second of the series. The writers allowed themselves to get bogged down by the apathetic nature of each individual player. By now, there are a lot of players – all of them with their own agenda. The midsection of the movie that was pure dialog as each person wheels and deals to get themselves into a golden situation for the final battle started to become a grueling exercise in keep-up.
I think that if the writers had allowed the characters to let go of some of the apathy and be driven off of pure heart, perhaps some of that could have been avoided. But these are pirates after all – their allegiance goes to the highest bidder. Ironically, the only man of his word was Barbossa, who keeps his end of the deal to Calypso no matter what the price.
All in all, it’s an enjoyable ride. The last hour is a blast – but it takes a long time to get there. Pay attention, or some of it might escape you.