Decent fun but not as special as the first

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2007)

The first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie was kind of a surprise -- I don't think expectations were really high for the film but it was a huge hit and in my opinion a lot of fun. The reverse is true now of the film's first sequel -- expectations were high and at least for me it was a letdown.
The story finds our heroes Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) once again in danger from an overzealous British naval captain (whose name I didn't catch and whose work was unexceptional). Will must try to fetch an important artifact from his friend Jack Sparrow (John Depp) to secure his future bride's freedom. She takes care of that with a little help from her dad (Jon Pryce) and joins him on the mad quest to do something vaguely connected to the compass and the "still beating heart" of Davey Jones (Bill Nighy).
So much for the film's plot, which feels like an obligatory afterthought to the effects and the character interactions. The plot just doesn't seem as compelling nor as tight as it was in the first film. Orlando Bloom shows no signs of growing ability or screen presence, in contrast to Knightley who gives probably the film's most surprising performance. The character work is also disappointing -- Bill Nighy is a good actor but here he's totally obscured by the effects and unable at any rate to even approximate the level of villainous charisma that enabled Geoff Rush to hold his own with Depp. Depp himself was disappointing to me as he seemed to be willing to act within the confines of what he had already done in the first film, and his character didn't have the kind of vague menace and wildness that it had in the first one. The film also follows the disappointing trend of many sequels of using lines that were well used in the original film in inappropriate situations in the sequels (the "I'll be back" syndrome, if you will) -- here we have supporting characters played by Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Cook cornering Ms. Swann and regaling her with a re-run of "hello poppet!". It's just lame and unimaginative, like Lucas with his pointless repetition of the "I have a bad feeling about this" line.
The sea creature villains are just not as interesting as the undead pirates in the first film. Also the makeup is relatively poor... I thought particularly the makeup on "Bootstrap Bill Turner" was unconvincing. It looked like the makeup from an 80s episode of Star Trek.
The movie is extremely long and has no conclusion -- not even the kind of temporary closure provided in other films like "Empire Strikes Back" and "Lord of the Rings".
All in all I can say I wasn't bored -- the film's visual effects alone make for some interesting moments. But I just didn't feel caught up in it like I did in the first film, it felt manufactured. Things that were once exciting now feel like a routine. I'll probably return for the final film in the series hoping it will be more satisfying... but I couldn't recommend this film to anyone but fans of the series.