An enormous atrocity

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2007)

Did anybody edit this movie??? I have never seen more attempts at grandeur fall so flat. They threw the baby out with the bath water on this one.
This movie was mostly a 2 and 1/2 hour blur for me. There were times I could not even make out the dialog, much less follow the action scenes wet with stuff that cost too much to cut. It was WAY too long.
Was this movie intended to be silly or serious? I found it overall, incoherent. Perhaps I am one of the few who just did not 'get it' (or one of the few that did not see the emperor's new clothes). It had some humorous but overtly silly moments that made me laugh. It was rarely engaging.
The special effects were over-the-top, and in many instances, first rate. On the other hand, there were many scenes where the green screen was so obvious, I could figuratively puke. Aside from the expensive eye candy, this film did nothing for me. All told, maybe 20 minutes of entertainment at too high a cost.
This movie just goes out of its way to WOW you, but I keep thinking... 'what is going on?'. Perhaps the fact that the preceding movie took flight from my brain years ago might have contributed to this lack of understanding (that movie wasn't all it was cracked-up to be either). Still... should this movie not stand on its own?
I also think that this movie could be scary for children. Even as an adult, I found the characters aboard Davy Jone's ship somewhat disturbing. Not exactly stuff you market under the Disney brand (except for the silly stuff). I won't even address the racial biases this movie inadvertently promotes.
I will not fault Johnny Depp for participating in this atrocity, as he has already been grandfathered into the franchise. It is always fun to watch him, and he contributes some to the limited entertainment value of this film.
I expect that many movie goers who saw this on the big screen walked out with stars spinning around their heads... thinking they had seen a tremendous blockbuster. Really, they were just inundated with incoherent WOW and knocked over, not realizing that they had bumped their heads.
If you can, give it a miss. It will be time well not spent.