Absolutely dreadful. What a misguided, overindulgent mess.

Rating: 1/10 (27 May 2007)

It's hard to imagine a sequel worse than this one. Ridiculous in the extreme, incoherent, and much, MUCH too long - a three-hour debacle. In the screening I attended, there were walkouts, much restlessness, and actual expressions of relief when it was over. It would have been so much better to create a more straightforward, fun pirate adventure that was more in the spirit of the first film; this version went so far astray that it has no redeeming qualities.
With luck, Pirates #3 will be remembered as the ultimate film overindulgence -- a moment in film history when the studios finally realized that a $300 million, three-hour mess is not the direction that films should be reading. I doubt it, but I can always hope.