From my FilmCrowd review:
Interesting, if not slightly diminutive, sequel to "The Curse of the Black Pearl."
There are some good set pieces throughout the film and some nicely-played action sequences (both of them involve rolling through the jungle inside a large round object), but this film overstays its welcome just a bit too much to be consistently exciting. Davy Jones and his barnacle-encrusted crew were a definite high point, as was Johnny Depp’s manic performance as Capt. Jack Sparrow.
I personally found it annoying how sea-travel seems to take no time at all in this movie (regardless of the vessel the characters happen to be in); expeditions that should normally take months occurred in cross-fades. Perhaps if the plot had been tightened up more, they wouldn’t have had to bounce around quite as much.
As the entire two and a half hours of this movie was essentially a teaser for the third installment next year, I’ll have to reserve judgement on the whole Pirates trilogy until then. For now though, all this movie will really do is make you say "arrggh."
More Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest reviews at FilmCrowd.com.