A worthy follow-up

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2006)

I went to the premiere Danish showing of this movie, and for a noon show it was remarkably well attended (Copenhagen's biggest theater, probably 75-80% full). I hoped the movie would be at least as good as the first one, and in fact it was. Not better, nor a terribly memorable movie; not much to think about after it ended, but while it lasted it was very funny and enjoyable - a worthy follow-up to the original.
Well, one thing to think about might be the subplot about Elizabeth really being more interested in Jack than in Will... but we'll have to wait until the next movie to see if there's some real meat on that hook.
I did think this movie was a bit too long. It had many great scenes and sequences, but at 150 minutes there were also some passages that were too long and boring. But it did have a lot of details, which was good.
Johnny Depp was of course the spice of the movie, while Bloom and Knightley, as in the original, were adequate. Not great, not bad, but all right. Jonathan Pryce was good (as he always is), and I did wonder if Davy Jones was actually played by someone, or if he was fully CGI. Turns out he was being played by another brilliant Brit, Bill Nighy (hell, what would Hollywood do without all the British acting talent?!), which explains why he was so good.
Next movie, I'm primarily looking forward to the return of Geoffrey Rush's character - and another generous helping of Johnny Depp's inimitable Jack Sparrow, of course!
A pirate's life for me! Nah, not really! :-)
My rating: 8 out of 10. Same as the first.