Two much for the price of one

Rating: 7/10 (25 August 2008)

I loved the first one, had a lot of fun with the second (the water wheel scene is a classic), but I agree with those who said the third was too long. 'Twas so. There was enough material in it to make 2 movies. The plot was too confusing to follow with any real sense on a single viewing. It has taken me several viewings at home to properly follow a lot of the plot points, like who's on whose side, etc.
Spielberg did the right thing with the second and third Back to the Future movies: he split them into 2 movies so he could properly explore each chapter of the story. Verbinski should have done the same with this one. He should have just concentrated on a great adventure to rescue Jack from the Locker battling the kraken along the way. That would have left the way clear for a rip-roaring battle between the pirates and Beckett in the 4th movie.
There was much too little done in Davey Jones Locker. They walk onto the beach and Jack sails across the sand to them, end of rescue.
The audience got a raw deal when the kraken, everyone's favourite villain and source of tension in the second movie, was simply written out in the 3rd with not so much as a stick poked into its eye.
What was the purpose of the whole 'free Calypso' plot line? So, she turned into a giant pile of crabs to do what, indicate to us that Miss Harris would not be part of a 4th movie? I could have written a less expensive scene to explain that.
Ten years on and, having borne and raised a child, Elizabeth aged not a day? Is that a continuity problem? Was that scene supposed to come at the end of a 4th movie in which she finds the fountain of youth? How come the naval officers didn't take command of the ship during the final attack when Beckett froze? Even if he was paying them, he was a company man, not a naval officer.