Rating: ***
One of the film's (and perhaps even the series') finest scenes is the opening one, in which hundreds of people found to be associating with pirates are hanged. A young boy starts up the singing of 'Hoist the Colours', a pirate song. The other prisoners soon join in, to a moving chorus of hope amidst the death of these prisoners.
The main word I would use to describe this film is 'enjoyable'. It certainly was - Depp's performance as Captain Jack Sparrow was, as ever, extremely amusing (although I am not sure the parts in which there are more than one of him work). However, it is spoilt slightly by the fact that much of the humour in the film is simply a little too silly, mainly between Mackenzie Crook and Lee Arenberg's characters.
There is a spectacularly filmed fight scene with brilliant special effects at the end of the film which, unfortunately, is ruined by its length of over 20 minutes. The crew could definitely have condensed it by cutting out a lot of Jack Sparrow's fighting with Davey Jones, much of which is monotonous and slow.
Overall, with a witty script and fabulous acting by leads Depp, Bloom and Knightley, the film passes as enjoyable, but does not live up to the original film in the series, which is a masterpiece. It could even be said that making Pirates of the Caribbean into a films series was unnecessary.
As ever, if you have any requests, please comment and let me know
