Now this is how to make a Part Three!

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2007)

Now this is how to make a Part Three! Where Spiderman, Batman and other franchises failed in wowing critics (maybe not so much the eager escapist audiences) with a third installment of a popular series, director Gore Verbinski succeeds in showing just how to stretch the excitement and enthusiasm even further.
Yes, the movie was long, but you wouldn't feel it so much with all the swashbuckling action going on, the subplots that hint at more important things to come, and the witty repartee (although some might need subtitles to decipher dialogue spoken with thick accents).
It would be helpful to review the two previous Pirates movies to appreciate the characters and the story more, and so would an ample background on popular mythology (I had to keep explaining to my moviemates what happened in the past two flicks).
Sure, as the plot unravels, things get more obvious but you don't mind this because the movie unfolds exactly as you would've pictured it. The sets, the costumes, the attention to detail are all impressive. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was definitely entertaining.
The cast looks as if they were all just having fun: Johnny Depp reprises his role as the oddball Captain Jack Sparrow and shows once more what a wonderful physical comedic actor he is; Orlando Bloom as Will Turner finally looks more manly than the scrappy metrosexual he's always playing; Keira Knightley could have used better dialogue but at least she's finally put on just a little bit more weight to make her look healthier and more convincing as the strong-willed Elizabeth Swann. Watch out for the much celebrated Pinoy Reggie Lee (from Prison Break, Fast and the Furious) as Chow Yun-Fat's main man, as well as Keith Richards, who makes a satisfyingly quirky cameo as Sparrow's dad.
Oh, and stay till the last of the looong credits roll for a sneak peek at a possible fourth movie, but Pirates 3 can honestly already stand on its own ending with this flick.