Not sure if this movie is to sell happy meals and toys, or vice versa?

Rating: 1/10 (8 May 2007)

I have been noticing all the POTC toys in the local stores for kids, and all the hamburger promotional crud as well and I didn't think that POTC was a kids movie that should be marketed towards children. Thinking that maybe the 2nd one was more "children friendly" I watched it. Boy was I right, this movie was much "scarier(children's point of view)" and darker than the first one.
I agree with the others in their terrible reviews of this film. I loved the first one. LOVED IT. Have seen it a hundred times and never tire of it. This one started out totally confusing and you wonder what happened between then and when this one opens.
Will and Elizabeth were madly in love yet they waited so long to get married? And they went from being on top of the world and in everyone's debt to being fugitives? And like one critic said earlier, they are both out of prison why didn't they just run off and live somewhere else forever? Where did Elizabeth learn to handle a sword and fight so well if she is indeed the prim and proper girl her father brought her up to be? Oh, and the two pirates from the last movie show up and suddenly become these well articulated side notes? Didn't we kill all these evil pirates off in the first movie? Guess not as the captain comes back at what the studio is calling the "end" of this movie...not an end, but more like a panhandlers cup trying to draw you into "donating" another $10.
The movie was LONG, BORING, and poorly wrote. The actor's performances were good as usual, but they couldn't carry this movie. The waterwheel scene??? Perpetual motion scientists need to get a hold of it and find out what makes that thing tick! It rolled for miles it appeared like.
The references to the first movie were pretty stupid too. The commodore breaking the candle in the prison...weak. The rum jokes....weak.
The supposed feelings for Jack by Elizabeth? She has loved Will since childhood and now all of a sudden about the time she is going to marry Will she starts having feelings for Jack....WEAK.
Then the captain shows up at the "end"? What good was the first movie if all the bad guys are still there? Did they do anything right in the first movie if all the bad guys are still alive and kicking? I don't want to see the third movie. They will probably just blow everything up and have tons of fight sequences with the same re-hashed dialog....Jack and Elizabeth will probably go back and forth like a bad Tuesday afternoon soap opera where she will finally choose Will in the end. I wouldn't be surprised if the financial executives at Disney wrote the 2nd and 3rd movies in an effort to tie it into toys and happy meals and sequels....I will continue to watch and enjoy the first movie, but will not bother with anything that comes out after it.