Ranking 9 Biggest Two-Part Movies From Worst To Best

After the entirely unexpected success of the first Pirates film, Disney immediately demanded more of them. Thus, director Gore Verbinski immediately set out charting the course for the story of the sequel. Eventually, the tale became so sprawling stuffed that Verbinski had to split into two films, resulting in Dead Man's Chest and the subsequent At World's End.

Dead Man's Chest was a not-quite-good-enough follow-up to the first film, offering audiences plenty of showstopping action (that big wheel fight remains impressive to this day, even if it defies all logic) but lacking any real inspired storytelling beyond 'pay homage to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'. It was overstuffed and cheaped out on its cliffhanger ending, immediately telling audiences that Jack wasn't really dead.

Then, At World's End came along and things got really weird. The fact that Verbinski made a film this strange out of a franchise based on a Disney theme park ride is something to be admired, but the film itself is a mess. When your franchise has gone from a fairly grounded pirate adventure to having a 50-foot tall woman turn in love with a squid-man into a god before disintegrating into crabs, something has gone wrong.