(No spoilers ahead)
Oh dear. For some reason this film, and the progression of the three films reminds me of the similar progressions that comedians go through. It happens to both UK and US comedians, Smith & Jones, Robin Williams, French & Saunders, Steve Martin - they start off being edgy, original and entertaining, but as their career progresses and they become successful they get so much power and influence that instead of being reined in, they are free to do whatever they want - disaster nearly always ensues.

It was the same with Peter Jackson's King Kong and George Lucas's Star Wars prequels, both directors previous movies had done so well that there was nobody to put on the brakes and say "stop - this bit is stupid, the movies too long, this character wouldnt do this" etc. And so Pirates 3 suffers a similar fate - there are 20 plots, but no story. If it was the first film in a series, the studio would have took the scissors to it and cut it down from nearly 3 hours to less than two, but as the previous films have done so well the filmmakers/actors have been left to run amok.

With Kiera Knightley's rising stardom she has managed to convince them to give her a bigger, more active role, that really doesnt work. If you thought Orlando Bloom had problems being a convincing pirate, wait until you see Knightley give it a try...

There are a few nice action scenes, but they go on way too long. The opening is almost exactly stolen from Return of the Jedi. The plot twists and turns every 2 minutes, but not in a surprising, interesting way, but just them introducing another macguffin or betrayal that is quickly reversed and forgiven.

I loved the first film, was a bit bored by the second and thought this was really, really bad. It really is an overlong, uninvolving mess that needed a stern hand to shape it into something lean and exciting.