Despite the fan-ficcy nature of Pirates 2 - WTF love triangles, the random revival of old enemies, some lazy Singapore/rum allusions to the first film, etc. - what makes the Pirates franchise work are the villains.
I mean, how awesome is Davy Jones? Behold the tentacled one above. To the right is John Silver from Disney's sorely underrated pirates-in-space flick Treasure Planet (for the record, first modern Disney feature in history where the hot protaganist possesses no love interest). While the ubiquitous Jack Sparrow would be a more appropriate parallel to the charming, who-in-hell's-name-is-he-with Silver, my point remains that the multilayered villain is hardly a new concept - it's just how well you do it. The gleeful melodrama killed me: Davy's emo organ playing, full-throttled laughter, liquid expression after ordering Bootstrap to whip Will (I loved Bootstrap too, of course), the Poe-ness of his Beating Heart clumsily flung into many dusty corners.
As for the rest, this commenter on Pajiba summed it up nicely:

They crammed a lot of stuff into the movie, so it did feel a little disjointed, but I had a blast, there were a lot of sexy men (Norrington? WTF?!), and the CGI was incredible. As someone said... it's based off of a RIDE at DISNEY WORLD. It isn't supposed to mean anything. Johnny Depp is just supposed to nance around while Orlando Bloom broods and Keira Knightly stands with her mouth open like a fish. So yeah. I liked it.

End SPOILERS.

Part 2: Let's Talk About Orientation, My Youth

Singaporean film-maker Unsu Lee said, "Even the indie scene has become formulaic." I have to agree. In every coming-of-age tale there's inevitably

a) Questioning of
- sexuality
- religion
- parents' authority
b) There will also be plenty of family gatherings that are
- warm
- dysfunctional
A great example of this would be Little Miss Sunshine - the teaser reeks of the above qualities. But what a sweet, sweet smell!

(As per usual, click to enlarge)

There's Rice Rhapsody (left) - Singapore-based movie about a mother going all out to prevent her youngest son from turning out like his gay brothers - and C.R.A.Z.Y. (right), French-Canadian movie about a father going all out to prevent his second-youngest son from turning out to be gay, despite the fact that his straight older brothers are heartily moronic in other areas.
I liked Rice Rhapsody quickly as it was a mad little movie that dropped the superior soapbox a Singaporean is assumed to stand on when he doesn't easily understand values outside his cultural spectrum.
C.R.A.Z.Y. was different because I was hard-put to find it truly original. But it's the sort of movie that clings to you because of choice moments - Zach meeting Michelle's eyes during night mass to exchange sneaky smirks before he dream-sequences floating on air under the priest's approving eye, a smartypants aside to his mother's fervent belief in his ability to perform miracles (he was born on Christmas Day).
And there's that thing about how movies set in the '70s will always express a deep love for music despite its not being directly about music (what personally springs to mind is Heath Ledger schmoozing to "Maggie May" while polishing a surfboard in Lords of Dogtown). A teenager with paint on his face warbling David Bowie in his bedroom, so loudly the entire neighborhood can hear him - what's not to love?