Good movie, but has some major flaws.

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2010)

First and foremost, this is a good movie, nothing more, nothing less. It's not groundbreaking or a movie I would immediately think of when someone asks me what are some of the best movies out there. It's just good.
Anyway, this movie serves as a conclusion to, what now appears, to be the first trilogy in Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Does it serve as a suitable ending? No. This is the reason why this movie falls short, because there are so many things that were left in the open and so many characters were never used to their full potential.
For one thing, characters such as the Kraken and Norrigton were killed off with their potential never realized. The Kraken literally only shows up once as a corpse, why? The movie gives one line of dialogue that can be easily missed that explains how it died. This creature, who was such a great part of the second movie, should have been given a much more epic send off. I thought that so much could have been done with the Kraken, with the epic battles at the end, and was looking forward to the heroes making a clever and complex plan to finally destroy it. Some people say that it would've have been impossible for them to kill, hence why the creators just offed it. No, in these movies, and this one proves it, anything can be pulled off.
Norrington could have also been a great character to expand upon and become a pivotal character in the final battle. Nope, he decides to betray his side again and gets killed off, lame. What about Will's father? Oh, three scenes and absolutely serves no part in the story either. Speaking of betrayal, geez, was that plot point over down in this movie. In one scene alone, there are over five betrayals by the various characters. This is why this movie is so hard to follow, it's because it's complex. Complex movies have a well written story that has good twists and turns throughout the ride and comes together at the end. Here you have a convoluted story where the it seems the producers made it up as they went along.
Along with that the script was absolutely horrendous in this movie in which horrible lines are said in an epic and dramatic fashion. Ex: "The ill material has become...ill-material". I'm sorry am I listening to a speech by George Bush or a movie? In all seriousness though, this movie has dozens of horrible lines, from Jack giving a speech about cuddle fish that makes no sense, to Barbossa and Jack going back and forth like children. These two characters are way too clever to simply only come up with "have to, have not" as comebacks in an argument. The story, while overall good, has some seriously silly moments (Elizabeth becoming the pirate king)that are meant to be taken seriously.
Okay, by now it sounds like I hate this movie, so why do i think it good. The acting I thought was terrific as usual, especially Depp and Rush, despite the horrible script. The battle sequences and fights were amazing to watch and were very intense and kept my interest, the fight between Jones and Jack is particularly exciting. And despite some ridiculous plot points and open questions, the ending does feel closed with the character's stories tied up and all the villains and their plans distinguished.
Overall, this move was exciting, but could have been 10 times better if they used more of the potential of certain characters and plot points. I think the trilogy deserved a more epic final chapter, but it's definitely worth a watch and is always to good to pop into the DVD player every once and a while.