Underrated on Most Accounts

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2010)

I just came back from the midnight showing of this and I have to say that one thing these reviews did do for me is help me enjoy the movie a lot more. I went in preparing to have dung hurled at me for the length of the film, when in actuality, I came out of the theater with the same feeling that I had when I left Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, by this I don't mean that it is like Pirates of the Caribbean, but it achieves its goal through different means, strumming different chords with the audience.
The acting was a bit clichéd in parts, the dialogue iffy in others, but all in all, it was a believable film that made me forget I was in a theater, which is the goal of films altogether: to suck you so far into the story that you aren't thinking about anything else.
As a side note, I found this also to be a more romantic story than that of POTC and I found the protagonist to be much less annoying than Will Turner (who I believe was poorly acted by Orlando Bloom).
But really, don't just read reviews and decide if you want to see it. It is definitely worth your money, if anything for the entertainment value. See it for yourself and don't take the brain-work of critics, for we all know that bad criticism could mean it is either really good or really bad. And it seems like everyone is a critic these days.
A solid 7.5 from me, but a 1- on the review's scale just to help bump it up.