PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END hasn’t yet come out, but there seems to be a trend to a lot of the criticism coming out thus far. Apparently the film was found to be confusing, convoluted and too complicated.

Let me see if I can simplify this for you.

The PIRATES trilogy is essentially about 3 characters. There are many other characters, but the only ones that will drive the plot are these three:

Jack Sparrow.

Elizabeth Swan.

Will Turner.

Now – two of those characters are entwined. When we first met Elizabeth and Will, they were be smitten with one another. They have only ever wanted to get married and live happily every after. The only real complication in their lives is that Will’s father is a slave, for all time, to Davy Jones. Will, of course, wants to free his father of this eternal obligation.

Then there’s Jack Sparrow. He’s complicated. He wants to sail the seven seas upon his ship, The Black Pearl, and well… he wants to do this while enjoying rum, women and a long life.

Wow. Complicated.

Not really. There’s a simple rule to the Pirates series that will drive it forward.

Jack will never have enough rum, women will always betray him and his life will always be in peril. Oh – and his ownership of the BLACK PEARL will always be in question. However, he’ll get a taste of all of these, but only enough to whet his appetite for an adventure with the endgame being – an abundance of everything he wants.

Every other character in the series is there to make these three lose sight of their goals, to pursue that same dream or to seemingly help these characters on their way. The nice thing about it all is this though. All these other characters have their own motivations and desires.

Tonight as I watched this third chapter of what will be a very long series, hopefully, I realized something really wonderful. The screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio are continuing to mix genres into their “Pirate” story to keep it fresh. This film is obviously fantasy and adventure. It’s very much, obviously, a pirate movie with a comedic bent. There’s also aspects of horror thrown in, but in this third film – there’s an awful lot of FILM NOIR thrown in. Is it overly complicated? Absolutely not.

At least not for me. I find this film amazingly refreshing. I can say, with zero trepidations – I absolutely LOVE this film. This isn’t like SPIDER-MAN 3 – where I had the huge caveat about the Venom & Black Suit stuff. Here – I feel the film perfectly wraps up this first story.

By the end of this film – you realize whose story this is, what that story was and how the series will go forward – and which characters need not go forward.

I LOVE THAT.

At the same time, it clarifies the direction and goals of the remaining characters, all of whom, I prefer to continue forward with.

I also love how Jack Sparrow and Barbossa have developed. They’re a bit Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck… They function best with a common goal that they need each other for, but the second that they cease to be useful to each other – Daffy will turn on Bugs – but Bugs is always – just a few steps ahead. Oh – but that’s actually not quite right. Cuz – Jack Sparrow is Daffy Duck, but with Bugs Bunny’s luck… and Daffy’s lot in life. Barbossa is actually more of a combination of Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam.

In AT WORLD’S END – we also get an answer about Jack Sparrow’s sanity. Jack is, in fact, insane. But he’s also a genius. He’s not straddling the fence, he’s very much madly mad and very much a brilliant genius. And I couldn’t be happier.

Chow Yun Fat isn't a huge contributor to things here, rather - he's a character that adds wonder to the world these characters live in. He's color to Sparrow's history. He's there to help elevate Elizabeth's position in the events at hand, as without him, she never would have made half the impression that she does.

The supporting cast of Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Kevin McNally, Naomie Harris and especially Stellen Skarsgard - they add the exact amount of color and quality that continues to make this series an absolute wonder.

Yes, I know I’m talking around things – that’s because I really don’t want to make this a spoiler review. There’s more than enough folks out there on the web, on AICN and elsewhere that are chomping at the bit to spoil the film. I’m not one of them.

However – you do want to know more about how the various elements of the film work. Right?

Right.

The production design is just stunning. The cinematography is lush and beautiful… be it the shores of Singapore – the icy wastelands – out at sea – under them or in the whimsical and fantastical locales we find our characters in. The visual effects from ILM are just jaw-dropping. Consistently and throughout – I continually find myself stunned.

The crew of the Flying Dutchman are just amazing. I remember as a small child watching STAR WARS – and it was so over-whelming when we found ourselves in the Cantina sequence. My brain just went into overload. All those creatures – sheer delight. Here, Gore Verbinski has absolutely captured that same sense of awe and wonder, but not in a galaxy far far away, but here… a long time ago.

The Black Pearl is our modern day Millennium Falcon. The Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones are our new Death Star and Darth Vader. But instead of simplifying the story by making Will and Elizabeth siblings and related to Davy – they keep them able to be happily ever after without an “ewww” moment. And we continue to focus on the Han Solo character – but he didn’t soften and become lame with love, he still has the fastest hunk of junk in the Caribbean… You can continue to go through the film to find the parallels, but instead of it being a straight carbon copy, like ERAGON – Elliot and Rossio know that the films we really want… are the continuing adventures of Han Solo… and that’s what they want to give us.

We love rogues and scoundrels… Men of questionable morals and shady dealings. But we love them to have a conscience and a sense of personal honor and by all means… a code to live by. That’s what makes Jack so fucking great. He’s one of the greatest cinematic clowns of all time – and like Chaplin and Keaton, he’s great because he has soul and desires that he’ll eternally pursue.

But it’s this world… the pervasive glee of piracy. The naughtiness of it. The mischievous smile of satisfaction of being decently dastardly.

The work is extraordinary. AT WORLD’S END isn’t a simplistic piece of product soullessly churned out for profit, even though profit is definitely in its future. I look at Jerry Bruckheimer as Richard Attenborough in JURASSIC PARK – he has spared no expense and created a miracle of creation. He’s turned a simple amusement park ride into a glorious mythology – by picking the right writers, the absolute right director and talent – and have let them have fun that is absolutely gleefully reeling out of the screen to us sitting in the audience.

And the music... This time, fully scored by Hans Zimmer - I have to say - that as my ear heard it, this was the absolute best score yet for the series. The film is epic and huge - and that's reflected absolutely in the score.

This is an amazing film.

And how does it work for – oh – let’s say a nearly 7 year old?

I took my nephew tonight – he’s been looking forward to it for… well, since the last film. The film never lost him, often times had him laughing gleefully and thrilling at each turn. After it was all over, I asked him if he liked it, he corrected my adjective by saying he LOVED it. And was so captivated by the film, that although he lost his front top tooth during the movie, he held on to it and didn’t even make mention of it, till the film was over. As he looked at me after the film and smiled that hilarious toothless grin of a child growing up, I could only envy the eyes with which he enjoyed this film.

For him, he could still grow up to be a pirate, to swashbuckle and derring-do. The world is filled with wenches and treasure and amazing creatures. There’s a wonderful scene on a beach in this film, with an astonishing creature washed ashore. Barbossa looks upon the creature and says something to the affect, that the world is getting smaller. To which Jack looks at the creatures lifeless body and says with an unmistakable feeling of regret, “No, the world is still the same, there’s just not as much in it.” Or something close to that.

I love that this film series exists, because as long as Jack Sparrow swigs some rum and navigates with his silly compass and continues to sail the seas – the world has some magic in it – and so do we. This is magic.