Shandon and I went to see this today and we both enjoyed it enormously. I was dubious going in, but it was most lighthearted fun I've had at the movies so far this year.

Johnny Depp was an excellent, and in my opinion, very camp, good pirate captain Jack Sparrow. I kept feeling that at some point there would be a quick aside, or even a plot twist, where he was going to admit that he really preferred cabin boys to Keira Knightly.

Geoffery Rush was the bad pirate captain Barbossa. He reminded me most of Tom Baker playing Captain Redbeard Rum in Black Adder II. Keira Knightly's character, Elizabeth, wasn't just a screaming love interest, she took the lead at couple of points.

The whole movie was funny and well worth seeing. There were a couple of places where you could guess what the next line was going to be, and I was disappointed the scriptwriters didn't try and confound our expectations. Otherwise the dialog was great and some of it pretty amusing. Curse of Monkey Island sort of stuff, an insult based duel wouldn't be out of place.

The effects, apart from a disappointing and very cgi looking first shot, were great. Storybook Pirates set in a storybook 18th century Caribbean with some nice twists and swashbuckling stunts.

Even the plot, apart from what I though was a weak ending, held together well. Classic structure of a quest with a reversal. It's also interesting how they were able to maneuver round pirates' propensity for rape. It becomes clear in the movie that Elizabeth is safe with these pirates because of a peculiarity of their condition.

All in all we both enjoyed ourselves greatly, I'd even go and see it again at the cinema. Recently I've felt that I've wasted my time after some of the stuff I've seen so this was a really pleasant change.