Great fun, but not as good as the Black Pearl

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2006)

Before I start, I'd like to mention that I am a huge fan of both Johnny Depp and "The Curse of the Black Pearl." Additionally, I really did enjoy "Dead Man's Chest," so even though this review seems quite harsh, I thought it was a fun film to view.
I think the major short-coming of this film was that it relied too much on the action. For me, the best part of The Curse of the Black Pearl were the actual exchanges between characters (Murtogg and Mullroy talking to Jack about the Black Pearl vs. Interceptor vs. the Dauntless, "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request," etc.). DMC had few if any funny exchanges--the extent of the jokes were snappy one-liners. Johnny Depp was great with what he was given, but because his dialogue wasn't enough to reveal character, he had to rely too much on his body actions and language. I'm not saying he did a bad job AT ALL with that--for me, he was all that really made the movie cohesive at all--but I wish the writers had given him more with which to work.
Davy Jones wasn't a believable villain to me. I love Barbossa because he's a smooth-speaking, funny, believable evil: his character isn't pure good or pure evil but is rather a complex mixture which makes him compelling for me. I feel bad for him at times and at others I want to throttle him, and that's what makes a great villain in my opinion. Davy Jones was just sort of...meh, I guess. Why was he so generically, packaged-up villain? Why did he become such a bad person? What went wrong with him? I get his broken heart, but that doesn't merit his actions, the way I see it. Another thing about Davy Jones before I move on: both he and his crew had great CGI to be sure, but it was a little...much. With Barbossa and his crew, the CGI isn't constant; there are moments when they look completely normal, some where they have an arm or a leg that is skeletal, and still others where they are completely supernatural. To quote a local newspaper, "you can only look at the band of bad guys...for so long." And I agree with that. I was annoyed at their presence after a while.
I also didn't understand Commodore Norrington's dramatic change in character. First, what compelled him to lead a dishonorable life? He seemed pretty 'ok' with the whole Elizabeth-Will deal. What happened? Additionally, though we dislike him because he impedes the Elizabeth/Will love story, we also feel bad for him when he gives up the girl and allows her to make her own decisions. He was a good man, and I don't get why he suddenly became so self-serving.
I thought that the whole natives/Jack=God plot line was funny, but completely useless and could have been removed so that an actual plot could have been constructed. It seemed incredibly random.
Now, granted, there were a lot of great moments. I loved Jack's first entrance; I really liked his jar of dirt; I thought the whole sequence with Jack, Norrington, and Will fighting on the beach was absolutely hilarious, but overdrawn once they got to the Church. I felt that Will's character finally developed a bit in this film and that he seemed so much more competent and interesting, which was great for me. I LOVED the interactions between Elizabeth and Jack. That piece actually seemed believable to me because she doesn't want to admit that she is attracted to such a messed up excuse for a human being and tries to blame it on a broken compass.
Overall, I just look back on the first installment and see a complete plot that was aided by action, not molded by it. We came to love the characters because they exposed themselves to us. In this movie, all the characters were almost just 'there' and letting the action guide them through the journey. Jack wasn't nearly as competent, and many of his actions seemed completely inexplicable, even for him.
Now, all that being said, I really, really liked it. I was entertained. But I wanted to love it, and I just simply don't. This installment just lost so much of its charm and purpose and much of it just seemed an excuse for elaborate fighting and flashy CGI. I'm not even sure that I'm going to buy it on DVD, whereas the first one is a movie I could watch over and over again.