It is definately the middle movie of a trilogy - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Reviews

Going in to see Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest at 12:01 am, there was a buzz of excitement in the air. I myself was positively quivering with joy. After the endless previews, the movie finally started, and...went pretty much nowhere. The opening shots of a rain soaked, deserted wedding were promising, as the East India Trading Company stormed the town in search of Will, Elizabeth, and Norrington, condemned to death after aiding in the escape of Jack Sparrow. That's pretty much where it stops making full sense, and the filler between the first movie and the third begins. This movie has many of the same flaws that the first had, namely the confusion about the Aztec gold. Barbossa's monkey is still hanging around the Black Pearl, and yet it is still immortal, which we learn by it being repeatedly shot. The whole Davy Jones thing is a little flimsy; it almost seems that they just wanted an excuse to make a really cool CGI character. The movie is a bit long at 2 1/2 hours, and there is much running around, pretty much the same as the first movie. But even though the movie had its flaws, there were some great comedic moments displayed by a wide range of characters, not just Jack. Some of the comedic gags are almost mirror images of ones in the first film; Governor Swan pulls a candle bracket off of the wall almost exactly the same as Will did it in the first. The actors and characters are what keep the film afloat; Johnny Depp is brilliant as always as Jack Sparrow, and this time around we get to see some real fear and emotions come from the unflappable pirate. Orlando Bloom does his best work to date as Will Turner, without much of the stiff and overdramatic acting he has done in many other films. He seems much more natural, and does a great job. Kira Knightly gets to wield a few swords, but is absent for much of the first half of the film. All in all, this isn't a cinematic masterpiece, but a fun summer blockbuster, and is ment to be taken as such. The extremely open ending will leave you hanging, and is perfect as an opener to the third movie. It will explode at the box office mainly for the fact that there are lots of Pirates fans out there, and to be honest, many of them don't care at all about the story, they just want to see Jack in all his drunken glory.