More Movie Than Is Necessary

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2007)

Gorgeously shot, great dialog, wonderful acting... but I have no idea what happened. This is 50 minutes of story crammed into 3 hours of movie. Seriously. Usually I'll check the spoiler box up there but I couldn't ruin this story for you if I wanted to. I DO know that there isn't enough Johnny Depp and easily too much of everything else by at least half. It's as if Verbinski and his people had gone over every scene and figured out how to complicate and over-blow it. That kind of stuff worked in the first two because they confined themselves more to stage-bound set pieces like that sword fight in the waterwheel, but since they felt that had to top themselves this time there was no where to go but beyond physical reality. (By the way, that sword fight appears quaint next to the big one here. The swamp sorceress from the end of part 2 though? Still here, and still smokin' hot. Anyway, not enough charm and too much noise for my taste, but quite accomplished in movie- movie terms.