Absolutely gorgeous to look at, lots of impressive special effects (almost too much at times, there's so much detail on the 'Flying Dutchman' and her barnacle encrusted crew that it becomes a bit overwhelming), but something is definitely missing here. Another case of sequel-itis (ok, more of the same, but bigger, and more of it), and along the way, whatever spark of magic that the original had is lost in the shuffle. I remember being so pleasantly surprised by the first movie, went in expecting total crap (I mean, based on the lamest of the Disney park rides, next to 'its a small world', and the second one to come out in the same summer - Haunted House flopping horribly), but it captured the imagination, Depp caught us all by surprise with his startling original take on the 'pirate captain' - but this time around... Depp's Jack Sparrow seems to mince and mugg for the camera even more, and instead of being endearing and groundbreaking, it feels phoned in.
Some were turned off by the grisley touches (the severed finger necklace), the violence, the thick characterizations (that voodoo princess they visit is barely understandable) - but for me, these were the best parts - I'm all for leaving the kiddie crowd behind -- perhaps the childish glee that they tried to inject into this darker story is what feels wrong, and not the other way around.
Not a good sign that we watched 2 hours of it, and then turned it off to finish later with little enthusiasm to see what happens at the end.