At The Fleapit: Pirates of The Caribbean - At World's End

Plot? We don't need no stinkin' plot!

Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End is a big, beautiful, mess of a film that - unlike Spider-Man 3 - never takes itself seriously and just piles excess upon excess.

An enjoyable three hours of cinema, the film picks up from the end of Dead Man's Chest, but abandons that film's amusement ride hokiness for genuine thrills and large scale spectacle. There can be no comparison between the daft fight on a free-rolling waterwheel in Dead Man's Chest and the breath-taking clash between the Flying Dutchman and The Black Pearl in a giant whirlpool that provides the backdrop for the climax of At World's End.

We are treated to a cast of thousands, as various new pirate captains are introduced (including an amusing turn from Keith Richards, from the Rolling Stones, as Jack Sparrow's dad), but the star for me had to be Keira Knightley.

Having built her part up slowly, from her supporting role in The Curse of The Black Pearl, her Elizabeth Swann turns out to be the lynch pin around whom the entire story eventually revolves.

Keira gets to kick butt and take names and manages to look stunning through out (she certainly has the best teeth of any of the pirates!). She is a captivating presence that holds the eye throughout; the film is probably worth watching for her alone!

This isn't high art or intellectual stimulation, but a text book definition of a summer blockbuster. A triumph of style over content, but still with enough content to hold your brain in neutral and stop your thoughts wandering to "what's for dinner?"

As a brief aside, Rachel and I saw this film at the Odeon in Basinstoke on our honeymoon. The seats were £6.50 a head - a whole pound per person cheaper than the Odeon in Tunbridge Wells - and the seats were much more comfortable, wider, more akin to the armchairs I used to enjoy in Tunbridge Wells' town centre ABC Cinema (before Odeon took it over and closed it down because it was draining customers from their out-of-town white elephant!) with large amounts of leg room. Does Tunbridge Wells really have the most expensive (and rubbish) cinema in the country, outside of London?