A series that lost it's way

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2007)

Whilst this is an OK film I firmly believe the makers of this series lost their way after a brilliant initial instalment. It's always difficult to recreate the magic of something like the Curse of the Black Pearl but they mislaid the ingredients that gave it such charm.
Instead they've gone overboard creating 'myths' and supernatural characters, which consequently appear very contrived. The 'normal world' characters now take the 'supernatural' ones as commonplace, hence, so does the viewer.
The writers also cheat, by which I mean that they've changed the rules as they go along. It is very important in Fantasy/SF etc that the writer outlines the rules in which the world they portray operates, and then stick to it. As soon as you bring someone back from the dead, there is no meaning to anyone else dying since they can just be brought back again at any time. Likewise when a character gets into a spot of trouble we don't want to see the writers just invent a new rule/character/myth that gets them out of it.
Maybe it's just too easy when they have a surefire hit on their hands - all they need to do is get a film released and the money will roll in, no matter what. Filling a film full of special effects, big names and scenes is a cop out when what is called for is a good story and script. Rather than invest so heavily in CGI and so much make up, the producers would do better to employ the best authors and writers that money can buy, it'd still be far cheaper. And the result would be immensely better.
As it is, they've wasted the brilliant 'Jack Sparrow' character in an overlong muddle of SFX, manufactured myths and silliness.