Despite the overwhelming hate, a few critics found a "sweet heart" in the film, praising its color and literacy or enjoying the chemistry between Depp and Bettany Are you interested in reading about the original novels
The story, as it spilled forth, was pure vintage Spode. Her husband, Lord Algernon Spode, had lost the family’s heirloom—a solid-gold, jewel-encrusted lobster named “Claudius” (don’t ask)—to a nefarious Cornish smuggler-turned-casino-owner called Silas “The Eel” Tremayne. The wager had taken place at Tremayne’s floating casino, the Mermaid’s Revenge , moored off St. Ives. Algernon, three sheets to the wind and convinced he could beat a man who literally cheated gravity, had staked Claudius against a crate of Tremayne’s “prize-winning” pasties.
David Kane