[cstephens]

Generally, I liked the film, but I think a lot of that is the attachment to the characters from the first film. Otherwise, the story was very choppy, and I'm not entirely sure I got it all. I'm pretty good with listening to accents, but I had a *really* difficult time with understanding both the haitianish magic lady living by the river and Davey Jones, so that made it even more difficult. And while there was a lot of eye-candy action, a lot of it seemed like it was there *only* for the eye-candy and the "wow, look what we can do" factor: the entire fight sequence on the rolling water wheel, most of the stuff having to do with the crew of the Flying Dutchman, Jack's whole escape attempt with the pole still tied to him. It almost seemed like they were relying entirely on all the good-will and interest generated by the first film and didn't bother to actually come up with a good story, which was mostly what drew me into the first film in the first place. This time, some of the coincidences were entirely too contrived.

Spoiler for the ending:

Spoiler:

I had forgotten that Barbossa was going to be in this, so it wasn't until they mentioned the new captain and I saw the first footstep that he popped into my mind. Great entrance, but I have no idea what he said because all of us in the theatre were screaming so loudly.

Spoiler for the ending-ending:

Spoiler:

Lots of people still left when the credits started to roll, but quite a few stayed for the whole thing (maybe it's an El Cap thing), so there were still a number of people there for the scene after the credits. And it was nice that the dog was still alive and had been made king, but doesn't that mean eventually, they will still roast him and eat him?