Pure movie magic

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2007)

There are times when you watch a movie and think, "Stories like this are the stories that movies were made to tell." Stories that may be a little simple, but not necessarily simplistic; stories about love and fighting and betrayal and redemption, with lots of really eye-popping visuals.
Stories that stick cleverly to every trope of the genre, cleverly subverting just enough to feel fresh and funny, adding comedic touches in exactly the right places and lashings of suspense and melodrama in exactly the right places.
Yes, there are problems with this movie. A long scene involving Jack as a cannibal king feels too long and too Jackily self-indulgent and not necessary enough to the plot. Orlando Bloom can now act his way out of a paper bag, but not much further. Keira Knightley seemed so much more winsome in the first film than she is here, and the movie should really be watched in conjunction with the third, At World's End, to get the full benefit of what story there is. And it lacks that element of surprise the first movie had.
Still. It's a pirate movie, full of fun and adventure and spectacle; the people making the movie are obviously having a wonderful time, and obviously want you to have a time that's just as good. It's difficult to resist falling in line with such eager wishes.