On the whole, disappointed

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2006)

Pirates  OK, first the disclaimer. The first Pirates replaced Superman the Movie as my favorite movie of all time. I loved the script, the banter, the clever lines, the cinematography, everything. It was a perfect movie. So this Pirates had a huge uphill battle and it failed pretty convincingly.
So what made Jack Sparrow such an interesting character in the first movie? After all he was a "bad guy", a pirate; yet we rooted for him. Will Turner summed it up when he proclaims Jack as a "good man" (what Jack called Will's father, Bootstrap). In the first movie Jack risks everything to save Elizabeth. He rescues Will. So he is worthy of redemption at the end, and that's why we root for him. In the new movie Jack is much more the scoundrel and less the hero. That is a HUGE error. How can we root for a villain? The first movie was so beautifully choreographed. Dark scene (literally  night), then bright scene and back and forth. New movie  mostly Dark Scenes. First movie had many great lines. Second time Jack shows up in front of Barbosa and Barbosa exclaims "impossible". Jack corrects him with "improbable". Just an example of a terrific line. Very few of these in the new movie. Will and Elizabeth were very good in the new movie.
Music was great, special effects were excellent although some were hard to see in the darkness.
I give this movie a 6 but then add a point because is is a MUST SEE movie. Afterall, it is the highest (by far) single day grossing movie of all time.
So the movie gets a 7.