Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom star in a film written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and directed by Gore Verbinski.

At their best, great adventure films can set up sequels that trim the fat from the original film, beef up the finer elements, and deliver an improved version with the same themes. The first Pirates of the Caribbean did just that. It was a pleasant surprise, an unexpectedly good-natured swashbuckler with choice supernatural elements, and a fantastically unhinged performance by Johnny Depp.