I loved it but this review might seem a little harsh

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2006)

Well, I've seen it. I like to call myself one of POTC's biggest New Zealand fans, but I am going to be as honest as I can. So this is my first impression. In the first ten minutes my thoughts were, well, this is a bit dark and bleak. The very first opening scene shows a right royal set of teacups being drenched by rain. Very dismal and eerie. Then we get a close up on Elizabeth sitting in the rain with the most depressed look on her face, surrounding her are the ruins of the wedding. Several bleak scenes later we have been introduced to Lord Beckett and the lives of Will and Elizabeth are in shaky hands. We shift to Gibbs singing, 'fifteen men on a dead man's chest' looking out upon a rather frightening fortress. Then we are re-introduced to Jack Sparrow, who is escaping this fortress. This intro is nothing compared to Jack's original entrance in POTC1 but it still is rather amusing. There are a few sharp, graphic, jabbing images throughout this but luckily, at this point the movie seems to take a turn (thank goodness, several young children next to me looked scared to death). We learn of Beckett's task he has given Will and Will meets up with Jack and his Crew on the cannibal island. I really enjoyed this part of the movie, some of the close-up, special effect shoots were a bit cheesy but we saw Captain Jack doing what he does best, escaping.
The movie progresses, I won't tell you much more but to say Davy Jones was excellent, Norrington was a surprise (I wish they had given him more screen-time), Elizabeth's little tantrum on the beach was rather funny but a little too over the top, Tia Dalma was great but I think she could have been so much more. And lastly we have the ending. It was Great. That Elizabeth Swann, my, my, my..I was actually quite surprised the writers decided to let Will witness that little...um...peck (?) at the end. I also didn't consider the fact that throughout the whole movie, when Elizabeth had Jack's compass, it didn't always point to Will and the chest?!??! That's definitely something to ponder about. The final scene is at Tia Dalma's shack were everyone is feeling numb with disbelief. Suddenly everyone is agreeing to 'sail to de end of de eart and beyond' and we meet the captain for that voyage. A man most of us never expected to see again. That final shot of Barbossa munching on his apple, grinning at everyone's shocked faces was awesome. All in all.umm..it was different, fresher, darker than the first. I also thought it was a little forced. Filming the first movie, they had no idea how much of a hit it would be. This time around they did. They had the money for all the big over the top special effects and they also, well, so it seemed, tried to make Jack Sparrow entertaining. What worked last time was the fact they wrote it with no idea how Johnny Depp would interpret it, this time they did. It just seemed like everything in the movie was the crew trying to hard. But I think I loved it none-the-less. Most of this I've written is me being picky, I think the only thing I truly disliked were some of the special effects shots, not the computer generated stuff but some of the others. Was it as good as the first movie? Yes it was, but in a different sense. They both have the same characters but they are both very different to each other. Was I disappointed when I left the cinema? After months of anticipation, was I disappointed? No, thankfully not. Expect to see me watching it again, and again over the next few weeks.