I think Roger Ebert had the same assessment of Babe: Pig In The City. He definitely championed it. (Alas, I never saw it. I'l get to it someday.)

I haven't weighed in on POTC - DMC yet, though I have seen it. My reaction was mixed. I had plenty of fun on a scene by scene level, but it hasn't lived on in my imagination the way the first did. I'm highly likely to go see it again, though.

(edit note - I tried to abbreviate the movie as POTC followed by a colon, and then the letters DMC. Look what happened when I posted that construction - POTC:DMC

I really didn't have any prior expectations, I have just found that, as time goes on, I'm getting more and more disgusted.

As my earlier rant shows, I was really frustrated by the film. But I totally disagree with iSm (and agree with Alex) about the fantasy aspect. The first movie was a fantasy, and this one is a fantasy.

Seriously, if you watch ANY fantasy movie, there's going to be things that don't make "sense" - and costuming is often the most problematic. I like my skeletal zombies in ratty clothes, thank you. If you want me to muster some sort of explanation, I'd say it has to do with Barbossa's exposition, where he says that nothing satisfies them anymore. They can wear any clothes they want, same way they can eat as much as they want or seek pleasurable company, but the moon shows them for what they really are, clothing included. Yeah, it's a lame explanation, but I'd have to say that it's a lame nitpick as well.

I also liked the sea crew. Hammerhead guy was awesomely freaky. It made sense to me as a pirate's hell.

Anyway, I had no problem with the fantasy elements. It was other stuff that sucked.

My sentiments regarding the film pretty much echo iSm to the letter, so I'll just add "ditto" there.

I will add, however, that my biggest disappointment wasn't any particular plot development, character, scene, prop or anything else along those lines. For me the thing that sucked kracken was the lack of anything even remotely resembling originality. When Black Pearl came out, sure it was fun and had great sets and characters which we all fell in love with, but the reason why everyone saw it several times and it became such a huge sleeper hit was because it was something new, something we hadn't seen before. While Hollywood repackages the same three films over and over and releases them again and again, Pirates came out of left field with an all new adventure, fresh and exciting. Now, Dead Man's Chest is released, and we get the same jokes, the same bits and the same everything else from the first film, just repackaged with a different name. I hate that about sequels more than anything, and I had sincerely hoped that the Pirates crew would avoid that trap. But alas, they did not and I'm sure that we'll have to hear more "Why is the rum gone" jokes in the third one as well. I now fear that it's going to turn out much like the Matrix trilogy: one amazing, timeless film and two other flicks that yeah, also happen to have the same characters in them.

:sigh:

Oh, the Matrix, I love that movie. Too bad there weren't any sequels, eh?

'Pirates' pulled in $62.2 mil this weekend. That's pretty good! The total is somewhere around $258 mil now... Wow!

Exactly. Just like that one Privateering movie with Johnny Depp and that really feminine kid from LoTR. They should really make another one of those too...

:D

I wouldn't call it vastly superior, but it was certainly brilliant. God, I love that sequel.

I didn't see much potential for this film, so it lived up to my expectations.

Lethal Weapon 3 ROCKED!