Some film critics are giddy over Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, while others are slamming it. I’ll side with the former folks, thank you.

The reviewer for a certain national publication was so pissy, it’s obvious her idea of films that “matter” are only bleak stories of cancer victims or alcoholics with no redeeming qualities, yet we’re supposed to feel for them (which all means she’s NOT invited to the next party). So any critic who saw the film in a room with just a few other writers, please leave now. In fact, bugger off.

I saw Pirates III with a real movie crowd: there were cheers and screams and applause. Is is long - oh yes, and I can’t wait for the DVD this Christmas season with bonus scene extras and more. This third installment in the series isn’t perfect, but it’s damn good fun and a fine piece of filmmaking overall - the epic, grand kind. If you haven’t seen the first two films, there’s not a lot of exposition here, and you may well feel as though you’ve been plopped in the middle of a ride - but what a ride it is.

Perhaps we could have had more of Depp’s mishap-to-brilliance prone rogue Captain Jack Sparrow, who’s more addled than ever this time out, but Geoffrey Rush is glorious, returning as once-nemesis and still a foil Captain Barbossa, almost stealing the film from stunning Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann and Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner as they meet their entwined destiny, though with surprises: Bill Nighy’s villainous Davy Jones even proves to be more than just the face of sea-horror evil. Among the new characters introduced, Chow Yun-Fat as Captain Sao Feng proves to be complex as well during his time on screen. Even the monkey has some depth. And Keith Richards as a mysterious, legendary pirate? We want more, so bring him back for the next one please.

The main characters are less cartoonish than parts of the first and especially the second movie. They have choices to make, risks to take.

No spoilers here. Let’s just say there are buckets-full of slapstick play and comedy, shiploads of adventure, swashbuckling, fantasy, double-crosses and triple-crosses, corporate-government baddies, bumbling and loyal sidekicks and more.

Everything does not just end on final notes, leaving things open for another film, which director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp have already agreed to, if the script/story is there and, from the looks of this movie’s ending, it seems possible, so cross your swords for that. And I will tell you to stay for the entire credits - do not walk out.

Some critics have also bemoaned sequel-mania as though it’s new in Hollywood. What about Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek and all those horror/slasher flicks of the late ’70s and ’80s? What about Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, Dracula, Frankenstein, and other monster film series of the 1930s and ’40s?

True, in the trilogy sweepstakes, Pirates isn’t Lord of the Rings - The greatest achievement in real filmmaking this decade - but it’s on par with Star Wars, creating some new heroes for several generations and bringing back pirate lore and wonder for ages five to 50 and beyond (though keep in mind, this one’s surely too intense and scary-at-times on the big screen for those little ones).

Though Harry Potter’s still to come, World’s End looks to be the movie-going experience of the year, offering all the engaging fun, thrills and laughs that most of us want in escaping for a while from our harrowing real world - something those sour reviewers should remember but never do. As for the rest of us, drink up the adventure, me heartys, yo-ho!

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