As "Dead Man's Chest" started running long, I recall looking at the time and thinking to myself "They can't wrap all this up in the time they have left."  And one Kraken-bite later, that was indeed the case.  Like any good fan, I knew Jack would be back, so I cursed the cliffhanger and I bided my time.  When the early spoilers came out, I shielded my eyes.

And now?  So glad I didn't know what was going to happen, so glad I got to watch it all unfold.  The third movie in any franchise has a lot to live up to.  First, it must top the first movie in the series if at all possible, and second, it must make up for the mistakes in the second installment.  "At World's End" accomplished the latter, though did not quite achieve the former.  "Curse of the Black Pearl," while not a perfect film itself, fit its role in the moviegoing sphere well: it was a fun adventure flick with engaging characters, hissable villains, and quotable lines.  "Dead Man's Chest" set up a thread-heavy plot, relying on the third film to wrap up everything, and you can only quote " Look! An undead monkey!" for so long.  "At World's End" gathered those plots, tossed most of the one-liners, and made the franchise grow up whether it wanted to or not.

The opening sequence of the film is beautifully, painfully done and will give me nightmares for a week.  The surreal aspects -- the feet dropping in unison, the boy who could have been a young Jack, the singing -- all combine to set the tone that this is not just a movie with supernatural elements, but that this is a dreamscape vision of how things might have been.

The effects grab that theme and build it with every penny of Disney cash available.  Toppling the Black Pearl, ships in a whirlpool, these things felt real and not budgeted.  (Things stretched a little credibility in that direction with the attack of the fifty-foot goddess, but that's a hard effect to make work.)  The sight of the Flying Dutchman rising from the ocean was magnificent every time.  The dead body of the Kraken (which, really, there should have been some comment about a stinky dead fish-creature) had the right mixture of "enormous threat in the last film" and "sad, dead thing washed up on the beach."

The problem with the Kraken was that it was an unstoppable foe, and with it, so were Jones and his men.  Without it, the undead fish-guys are far less menacing this go-round, which lessens them as threats.  Most stories that give villain POV have some moment where the first crack in the armor appears (a rogue informant, something gone wrong with the plan) and from that point on, the audience knows the heroes will win.  With the Kraken out of the way early, and Jones made a pawn of the East India Trading Company, it just wasn't the same "Ohgod, they're all going to die," at least not until the fifty ships appeared out of the fog.  (Excellent moment.)

The real strength in this series is the characters, and this bunch is still dealing with the fallout from the last film.  Elizabeth is drowning with guilt for having left Jack to die.  Will is caught between his loyalty to her and his oath to his father.  Jack literally has two angels (er, yeah … angels … ) on his shoulders leading him onwards, through death and back again.  Norrington, restored to his old post, isn't sure who he is.  And so on.

Characters betray each other and deal and double-deal each other so much that a chart is necessary to figure out who's doublecrossing whom at any given time.  This is delightful, and part of the fun.  Minor characters from the series -- most notably both sets of Rosencrantzes and Guildensterns -- get to shine.  One minor character becomes a major deity, and the ones who imprisoned her learn that's not a nice thing to do.

One of the themes that is fulfilled through the series is justice and the repayment of debts both literal and figurative.  Jack Sparrow had to die to repay his debt to Davy Jones (and as a bonus, gets to come back).  Jones is punished for his betrayal of his one true love.  Elizabeth and Will are punished for their constant betrayals to the rest and each other by being given, and then denied, the one thing they really want.  And that theme reverberates too: getting what you want at last, only to lose it in the end.  Serious stuff for a movie based on an amusement park ride.

There is much to be said about this film.  It is lovely to see, and thought-provoking without being too deep.  Johnny Depp gives good crazy.  Orlando Bloom can drink tea like a champion.  (Seriously!)  The fight scenes are deliciously fun.  The post-coital snuggling on the beach is surprisingly sexy.  Keith Richards plays a guitar.  The dead and the undead mingle in heartaching ways with the living, with a song running through that cries out for vengeance or at the least justice and a way to find peace.

You will believe an undead monkey can fly.