I don't see the fantastic four movies, battlefield earth, mummy 3, van helsing, etc, as anything similar to a good quality production. Bad visual effects, boring visuals, no existing story, one dimensional characters, horrible cinematography, bad music, all would make these movies seemingly bad quality films.
Pirates 2 & 3 has an amazing score, great visuals, epic story and battles, good cinematography, pretty good acting, and a fun story. It's a good fantasy journey length, good directing, and satisfying conclusion. Comparing this franchise to those movies makes no sense. The way these movies are bashed confuses me, and only can be explained by people's extremely unrealistic expectations. Even if you don't like a story, doesn't mean the films were not well made or high quality productions. It just means it's not your cup of tea.
And anyone who says specifically that van helsing has good special effects, had no idea what they are talking about. In my opinion.