A victim of it's own success

Rating: 3/10 (23 July 2006)

I'll say this right off the bat; this is not a good movie. Not "this is not as good as the original" but just poor movie making in general.
Why? First of all, it's too long by at least 30 minutes. And I'd guess most of those 30 minutes could have been excised by scaling back on the mind-numbing gore scenes. I guess the producers wanted as much of the budget on the screen so we're treated to scene after scene of pointless sea zombies pulsing and oozing. Very stupid.
Then there is the story, if you can call it that. In an effort to reprise as many of the featured roles from the first film, all kinds of vignettes are created to justify their presence in this mess.
Finally, the biggest problem is the very thing that made the first movie so unique, Johnny Depp's performance. All the quirks that made his Jack Sparrow such an unforgettable character in movie #1 are so amplified in this film that it also seems like a parody instead of a performance. This is the first time I've seen Depp mug for the camera and it's very difficult to watch.
Well, there is one more thing, it's no secret that POTC #3 was shot in tandem with this movie but the ending was so clichéd and sudden that it seems as if the whole plot of this movie was simply to set up the next.
Save your money, rent the DVD and be very wary of installment number three.