I knew something like that was about to happen, but yikes. It was fun to feel the whole audience jump, though.

Yeah, someone behind me screamed. Heh.

I thought it was good and fun, but not nearly as good as the first one. I thought the first one had a very impressive script with a surprisingly coherent plot, but this one was kind of lacking in that department. This one had stronger character development, however. Elizabeth is even more of a badass, and I like that they took her into the grey at the end. I agree with Strega that the fishy pirates aren't inherently as cool as the zombie pirates, although the special effects were good. (And I also enjoyed the throwaway "how to pronounce 'kraken' bit," but I generally love those two characters. I even enjoyed the gratuitous "Here are everyone's motivations in the fight scene we are watching" bit.) Most of the giant set-pieces felt like...giant set-pieces rather than anything with a point. They could have cut out the whole cannibal subplot and replaced it with something that fit better. I missed the cleverness of the first one. I did like the theme of desire as it pertained to the compass and the characters. I like thematics.

Regarding the end, I remembered seeing Geoffrey Rush's name attached to the movie since forever, and I didn't understand how he could be in the movie since Barbossa was kinda dead, and there were fleeting moments during the movie where I expected him to show up, but then I forgot. As soon as Miss Cleo said her line, though, I knew it was going to be him.

Pretty much everyone I saw it with was extremely disappointed. But there were pirates and monkeys and shenanigans, so it was fun.

Oh! I was pissed that they killed the Indian guy within half an hour. Heh.

Depends on how much he can remember.

A need for accuracy hasn't prevented anyone else from writing their memoirs...

Anyway, he can just check court records for the salient points.

Oh! I was pissed that etc...

Yeah, I liked him. And! And! they left the key dog on the island with the cannibals.

Loved what they did with Scruffington - and boy howdy, does his resignation and disappearance provide fodder for fic.

An IMDb review says the following:

Filming the first movie, they had no idea how much of a hit it would be. This time around they did.

And I think that kind of sums it up. Part of the mad love for the first one is because the fact that it was a good movie was so entirely unexpected.

Another thing I liked was that any time the cage or wheel or whatever bizarre thing passed by, all the characters stopped to look at it with WTF faces.

Saw “Pirates of the Caribbean” -- There were some cute moments, but overall it was distractingly bloated -- the whole movie (2 ½ hours) as well as individual scenes. *** For example, the 3-way sword fight was funny, including Elizabeth’s frustrated reactions. But it went on and on and on and on. We have the long bit on the beach and then the trek to the building, then the long fight on the wheel and then back to the beach and … whatever.

It also seemed too scary and gross in places. There were a lot of kids at the showing I attended and it was too intent for a fair number of them.

I’m also disappointed by the whole “to be continued” thing. I had read only a few stories about the movie so I was not aware of it in advance. I was left with the feeling that there was only enough plot for one sequel and the studio pumped in a lot of bilge to stretch it out to two. ***

the [spoiler] was funny, including [spoiler]

Heh. I loved "Oh, the heat! The heat!"

I was aware of the cliffhanger ending because a film critic on my flist posted that it was the best cliffhanger since Empire Strikes Back.

Part of the mad love for the first one is because the fact that it was a good movie was so entirely unexpected.

Yeah, the first one was so much better than it had any right to be that even its flaws are kind of lovable. Johanna was telling me that she looked at the reviews right before going to see it, and since a lot of them were negative it lowered her expectations enough that she had the same kind of "Hey, this is much better than I thought it would be! Yay!" experience. Plus, this one is effectively half a movie, which makes it harder to judge. I didn't know it ended with a cliffhanger -- or several, really -- either; that does make the simultaneous filming more sensible.

Johanna was telling me that she looked at the reviews right before going to see it, and since a lot of them were negative it lowered her expectations enough that she had the same kind of "Hey, this is much better than I thought it would be! Yay!" experience.

See, I finally went to see it because I'd been hearing awesome things about it, so I was surprised to discover that the word-of-mouth was true.

I want to watch the first one again now. And you know what, I totally can. My cousin here has the DVD. I was actually the one who told her to go see it, and now she's a giant fangirl.

Space Monkeys (of course): When Davy Jones plays the organ with his tentacles -- was anyone else reminded of Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

Yeah, definitely. I think that was deliberate, given the submarine-ish ship and the kraken.

There's an interview with the writers at Box Office Mojo (registration required). One non-spoilery highlight about the 3rd movie:

Box Office Mojo: Is the title Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End?

Terry Rossio: That's what we're campaigning for—but it's not set.

Ted Elliott: I like it because then you could say 'POTC: AWE.'