Rollicking fun, a decent sequel (very mild spoiler)

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2006)

I was very apprehensive about doing a sequel to PIRATES because, in my opinion, they pretty much used up every pirate trope in the book in the first movie, which is why it was so entertaining. So I figured all they could do was a simple retread in a sequel.
I'm pleased that I was wrong. Basically the filmmakers have generated a very entertaining sequel, which is basically another long but amusing exercise in characters gallivanting to and fro, jumping from ship to ship, being separated, being reunited, stabbing each other in the back, stealing things from each other, lying to each other, etc etc. Oh, and the special effects are great. In short, not Oscar material but it seems to me the filmmakers definitely understood what people liked about the first film (mostly).
This is a formula movie. The filmmakers obviously understand their formula. And guess what? It's fun and inconsequential and I wished it could have been 3 hours long. If you hated the first PIRATES you definitely won't like this; if you thought the second PIRATES movie had to somehow be less frenetic and "deeper," you will be disappointed too. However, if you loved the swashbuckling-for-swashbuckling's sake in the first movie and the silly, fast-moving plots about treasures, medallions, keys, ghost ships and what not, you'll like this a lot.
The not-so-good: We've already met Captain Jack so there are no real surprises about him this time and he's not quite as outrageous. Davy Jones is not quite as good a villain as Captain Barbosa (and nowhere near as compelling, since he's hidden beneath some very good CGI). The British soldiers aren't very interesting this time (I think the pair we saw in the first movie became sailors) and the British villain isn't very compelling.
The good: Almost all the characters have returned, and some of the bad characters (like the pirate pair including the one with the false eyeball) are pondering joining the good side, while some of the good characters (like Commander Norrington) take a turn for the dark side. (Commander Norrington, by the way, was supposed to be an outright bad guy in the first film but they made him more sympathetic.) I suspect some of these characters will once again cross the good guy-bad guy line before the trilogy is done.
By the way, Jack Davenport (Norrington) is BEYOND HOT in this one and makes Orlando Bloom look like a mere boy. Just sayin'.
I will not give away the very ending of the movie (which is also a continuation) except to say that people in my theater cheered at a certain familiar face. (And no, it's not Keith Richards) IN CONCLUSION: The bad reviews for this are going off the deep end... these people were obviously expecting WAR AND PEACE, not the rollicking inconsequentiality they did so well in the first film and also do well in this one.