good but not as good as the first

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2006)

While agree with all the comments from above, on characters and CGI, etc. I think the writers did not do as quite as well this go around. I liked many of the references to the Legend of the Black Pearl (LBP), but I got tired of that by the end of the flick. Sure it was funny to have the Governor try to find the keys to the jail cell and mutter something like 'Where is that dog?' but that kind of thing just got a little too overdone by the end.
I get that the director/producer probably wanted to make a movie that could stand alone more than the Harry Potter series, which relies heavily on the viewers understanding the characters and plot of previous installments. But at the same time, it seems that make too much effort to reference those kinds of details from the LBP, so that if the viewer has not seen the LBP they will not understand the refs.
That's really my only gripe.
I loved the action scenes and new twists on sword fight scenes. In general, a sword fight is a sword fight and hasn't changed since before the black and white era. It was a great movie and I recommend seeing it to anyone. The acting was very well done. There was no gap or inconsistencies from character to character from the first. Those supporting characters returning from the LBP carried their characters over perfectly.