everybody is at sea in this movie

Rating: 3/10 (8 July 2006)

In this movie special effects don't only run amok, they even swim amok, but they are unimaginative, copied from other movies, and frankly . boring. Boring is also Johnny Depp's performance. He obviously has been instructed to cut out the sexual ambiguity he overdid in the first installment of the Pirates series, and beyond that his acting ability seems to be on the limited side.
For a Caribbean movie it is .maybe appropriate if the actors seem to be at sea. Orlando Bloom certainly does. One has the feeling that they forgot to tell him who his love interest was supposed to be, and in his confusion he shared what little erotic interest he could muster for someone other than himself, between Keira Knightley, and Johnny Depp.
The story is of the type where every scene is lifted from some work old enough for its copyright to have expired: "The Flying Dutchman," "Captain Cook," the Road movies of Crosby and Hope, etc..
The only good thing about this movie is the performance of Naomie Harris in the small but important role of the seer Tia Dalma. It is intense, refreshingly alive amidst the general boredom, and yes, spellbinding, a clear Oscar candidate.