As convoluted and unnecessarily complicated as this sequel duology *still* is, **it works.** I was super critical of this movie 18 years ago -- ugh, just put me in the pine box already -- mostly because it was a paint-by-numbers retread of all thing things that made Curse of the Black Pearl *so* good; ramping things up to 11 just made that "how can we capture the lighting in a bottle a second, third time?" plan so obvious. The slapstick was effective when it was just Johnny Depp doing his Keith Richards impression, but it doesn't work as well when it's every fan-favorite character from the first movie being given those classic Jack Sparrow moments. And pushing the Will-Elizabeth-Jack soap opera love triangle didn't help, especially since that was such an major backbone of At World's End. It was too much of an echo of the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle on Lost at *exactly* the same time as this movie was was in production; felt like a cheap imitation, because Kate seducing Sawyer enough to lock him up was *straight* from Lost.

Despite what everyone may think after all *this*, I didn't hate the first three movies; I just wasn't as entertained as I was in 2003 after watching Curse of the Black Pearl for the first time. Kinda like how Back to the Future II and III couldn't *really* recapture the lightning in a flux capacitor that was Back to the Future, for similar reasons: both were shot back-to-back after the first became an unexpected financial and critical hit. Jack's "death" was kinda blunted by the knowledge that Depp was coming back for the third, sorta like how Spider-Man being dusted at the end of Infinity War was less impactful because Sony wanted everyone to know that Tom Holland's Spider-Man was coming back 18 months later for Far From Home.

Here comes the meta title reveal of number three: "But if you go and brave the weird and haunted shores at world's end,then you will need a captain who knows those waters." And the fan-favorite Geoffrey Rush is back, with yet another call back to apples.

I ***do*** have to give credit for this movie doing such a great job of recreating the Blue Bayou Restaurant aesthetic part of the Disneyland ride, especially the fireflies that looked like they were just fiber optic strands lit up green. The only way the Tia Dalma scenes could've been more accurate to the ride was if theaters pumped in that unmistakable scent of bromine that the park has used over chlorine to keep the water sanitary.

All that said, while "Hello, beastie" may not have had the same effect as Jack's introduction in CotBP, it's still just as an iconic moment.