Two hours and 47 minutes is a long time to sit through any movie that isn’t billing itself as an epic, much less one promising swashbuckling adventure and thrills. It’s a long time to try and sustain any adventure without feeling the strain of a top-heavy story. My initial thoughts on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy as a whole compare it to the Matrix franchise: the first movie was a stand-out and stand-alone classic. Parts 2 and 3 were ambitious story-telling, which don’t quite bring what they want to do to a cohesive whole. Interesting messes.

What I enjoy so much about this series is its lack of fear to be darker, especially for a Disney movie. They are pirate movies that remember pirates don’t have the best table, or any other kind of, manners. They kill and are brutal and often find themselves in situations where they have to kill and be brutal. Which makes it quite the juggling act to balance that with a sense of freewheeling whimsy.

The director, Gore Verbinski, and the screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, throw in everything but the poop deck in this third installment (you know, the “we have to have more of everything in order to outdo the first two” mentality). So we have an unnecessarily complex storyline, I’m sure meant to be understood under repeated viewings. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is trapped in Davy Jones’ locker or hell or limbo and needs rescuing. Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) attempts to free the father he never knew, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), from the curse of Davy Jones. Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Jack join the “father issues” club. Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), putting the magic in magical Negro, longs for freedom. Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) wants, I’m never quite sure what he wants: to be human again, to regain his lost love, to sail the seas. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) wants to unite all of the pirate lords to battle the British, led by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), to preserve the pirate way of life.

All that and there’s no cool monster.

“Too long my fate has not been in my own hands. No longer.” –Barbossa

Many boys (and girls!) dream of being pirates. who have been mythologized and romanticized to the point of social acceptance, if not heroism—a far cry from how they were treated (and behaved) in their day. Part of their allure, much like the cowboy spirit that has become part of the fabric of American lore, is their self-determination. Pirates want to live life on their own terms, pursue their sense of freedom. Theirs is the anarchist heart that fuels the spirit of punks, Harley riders, and so many other modern day interpretations of that way of life.

The problem with this great myth of individualism is that it tends to only lead to people to focus on their own personal agendas—an inability to see past themselves.

“You have corrupted your purpose and so yourself.” –Tia Dalma

Whether they realize it or not, most of the sprawling cast of characters in the movie are on a quest for forgiveness and/or redemption: Elizabeth for having betrayed and killed Jack; Bootstrap Bill for choosing his way of life; Davy Jones for being his love’s Judas; and Jack for being Jack. All of them are bearing burdens they didn’t know they had.

Despite their claims to living as they see fit, even the pirates are governed by their law: The Code of the Brethren, the old law, ever subject to tradition and interpretation and thus not enough to keep them from pursuing their own way of life. The pursuit of their individual agendas lead to despair and that despair leads to betrayal (after betrayal after betrayal). In fact, there is such a morass of betrayal and intrigue the movie borders on the nonsensical.

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