No one listens to the critics any more, do they? Let us look at the facts: Spider-Man 3: critical turkey, box office smash; Shrek the Third: turned journalists greener than its main protagonist, took $122m in the US alone in its first weekend. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: well it's more of the same, n'est-ce pas?
Not strictly true, actually. Whilst the general perception seems to be that the third and supposedly final instalment in Gore Verbinski's pirate trilogy has been firmly dunked in the pond by the critics, it has actually fared better than expected (a 75% fresh rating amongst the "Cream of the Crop" critics followed by rottentomatoes.com is not at all bad).
Indeed Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times reckons Pirate thesps of yore would be impressed by the new outing. "If Erroll Flynn, Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks Jr could see the ridiculously entertaining action sequences, they'd drop their swords in amazement," he says.
Our own Steve Rose however labels the film "one hulking, cumbersome beast of a movie". Jamie Russell for the BBC is in agreement. "[It] clunks like a rusty anchor," he writes. Edward Porter in the Times points out the film's "messy fits and starts" and "hurried dialogue".
But given At World's End took $151.1m in north America at the weekend, the third highest three-day opening ever, no less, Disney execs are probably too busy cracking open their massed arrays of treasure chests to care what a few measly writers think. But in any case, we're more concerned about your views. Was the film a fittingly swashbuckling end to the series, or should it be buried forever beneath the waves? Let us know your thoughts.
