We were treated to trailers for HP:OTP, Oceans 13, Ratatouille, Evan Almighty, and Transformers. They all did their job very well. The missus even wants to see Transformers now, whereas before she wasn't keen on the idea. It's important to know that as a girl type-person she didn't play with the toys and watch the cartoon as I did, which is to say religiously. I'm not a big fan of any of the attempted reboots/updates and I didn't hold out a whole lot of hope with this one, though I've always firmly believed that Bay was the man for the job. I gotta say that every moving image I've seen (and granted we've seen many of the same ones over and over and over) has got me psyched. The flaming paint job doesn't bother me. Megatron looks menacing in a way he never did. Bumblebee as a Camaro is fine. Come on July 4th!

But enough of this, you want to know what I thought of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

This movie has certainly gotten its share of criticism and some of its fairly earned. This is a long move. Though it didn't feel long to me, it could have certainly gone under the knife just a bit. It seems that Hollywood is beginning to think that more is better. Between this and Spiderman 3, it seems that they've forgotten that summer blockbusters don't have to test the limits of your bladder. Of course at seven and a half dollars I do feel like I got my money's worth.

I would have liked to have seen more of the pirate lords and a little less Orlando Bloom. I could have spent the whole movie watching Chow Yun-Fat as a pirate, kung-fu or no kung-fu. I could have done without the really odd opening musical number, though props (I guess) to Disney for making the interesting decision to hang a kid.

Having said all that, there was so much about this movie that was awesome. Much was made in my circles about all of the double and triple crosses that transpired. Those worked for me and kept it foremost in my mind that these are pirates after all. In spite of that, they want desperately to "do the right thing" when it comes down to the end of it all. This is the kind of camaraderie that one wants to see among rogues. If you stand against one of us, you stand against all of us. For that matter it's the kind of relationship that one often sees in families, albeit dysfunctional ones. We reserve the right to snap at, two-time, or mistreat them, but God help you if you mess with my momma/sister/cousin.

I love Davy Jones. He was easily the best part of Dead Man's Chest, as was the whole Dutchman crew. Here he gets a little more depth as we see the love between him and Calypso. He's equal parts Cthulu, Phantom of the Opera, and Blackbeard. And speaking of Calypso, during her complete unveiling I couldn't help but think of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Any movie that brings these kinds of filmic memories back to my mind earns a point or two.

There were some incredibly over the top moments that I've heard a little complaint about (parachute, monkey canon, much fighting in the rigging) and I honestly don't get that. The first movie had zombies WALKING UNDER WATER. I think the over the top stuff worked well all things considered.

And the ending, aaahhhh the ending, I loved how it ended. It did everything it should have done and just a bit more. My wife was a bit disappointed, but she liked it too. It does set up a Pirates IV which I hope doesn't happen. Just let them sail off into the mists of adventure. Maybe a video game would be nice, but no more movies. Please. I know that I loved this one and I'd love IV, of that I'm certain, but enough's enough. And if I have to tell you to stay until after the credits roll then you didn't pay attention to the first two movies.

Go see it this weekend.