Quite good... for the first half

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2006)

First off, I'd like to say that I came into the cinema pretty much with high expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment and jumped at the first chance I got to see it. So having watched it three and a half hours ago on opening day, take into account that I've probably yet to digest the whole movie.
So we all know Pirates 2 and 3 were filmed back to back, yeah? What i hadn't expected was the movies to seem like they were meant to watched that way. Pirates 2 doesn't have much of an ending... and while it launches off very well the last half hour was almost a bit painful.
During the movie I was reminded of King Kong (the recent one) and LOTR (particularly the Ents with a certain character).
As for the actors...
Orlando look rather dashing... that's all I'll say for that. Johnny Depp was pretty good as usual, although his accent swayed a bit. Less than Bill Nighy's - which I'm not so sure but should have been Scottish. As for Keira Knightly, I couldn't really get passed the fact that in most shots it seemed like she was always trying to make her nose narrower.
I think I'd definitely rush to see the third installment. What Pirates 2 really set out well was some real solid (and scary) antagonists. Although there wasn't too much of a resolve (at all) at the end and as much as i understood that a lot was probably sacrificed to set up the third. In quite honesty, the last minute/scene/shot pretty much killed it. Plain cheesy even. It devastated me.
The special effects and make up were particularly well done. Nothing look unrealistic (as far as seas monster go) at all. So that was really satisfying. Especially boot strap Bill... I thought the attached starfish and muscles was completely genius.