Pirates 3 is Arrr, an Eye Feast

Underwater boats, end of the world cliff-hangers and Johnny Depp. It doesn’t get better for summer entertainment. This film is pure fantasy, the kind that Hollywood used to deliver in its golden days of epics, and finally, it’s back.

It makes Spider-Man and Shrek look like product placement ads.

I could go on about the set design, the ingenuity of the new lands -- Singapore, the pirates lair, Davy Jones’ locker -- but well, you can see it at the theater, so you don’t need me.

As for story…

I tried eagerly to follow the multi-charactered plot, its twists and turns, its betrayal to characters and the audience, as well as the quick dialog, which explained too much in too scarce of accents, that it was, at times, impossible to follow.

Sixty minutes into the film, I had no idea what the story was about.

But I didn’t care. I found myself trusting that the writers were telling me a story I wanted to know. Even now, some days after seeing it. I can’t figure why young Will Turner was sentenced to hanging and how giving Lord Beckett the coin absolved him from this death?

But does it matter?

It was beautiful to watch. (I won’t say the same about Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, but I know others will. Perhaps those are the ones who like cake. That had too little eye candy and not enough plot.)

This was exhilarating to see, the jokes were good, the twists were unexpected and each character went through a journey of his own.

It’s worth the money to see it with fellow movie-goers entrenched in a theater’s underwater darkness.