Anyone Who Dubs This "The Empire Strikes Back" Of Our Era --

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2006)

-- Needs to be immediately exiled to Tortuga, with no possibility of return.
I was bored and stupefied by the first movie, which just seemed like the long pirate equivalent of a Scooby Doo shriek.
Happily, "Dead Man's Chest" at least gave me glimmers of entertainment.
The movie takes an insanely long amount of time to get going...it isn't really until Nighy's crew arrive that the movie actually gets interesting. Nighy's Davy Jones is probably the single most impressive CG creation since Kong and Gollum...simply beautiful work. It's clear the real hero of this movie is designer Crash McCreery...his very specific slant fits the crew/creature designs perfectly, and are nothing short of repellently spectacular.
This is a far more entertaining movie than the first, but still falls short of being re-watch-memorable. Portions of it seem lifted from other movies: the escape from the swinging prisons is right out of "Time Bandits", the Kraken attacks lifted from "Warlords Of Atlantis". Davy Jones' angsty organ playing (and practically the design of the organ itself!) from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea".
Verbinski employs his cinematography to far more interesting effect here, and I'll be surprised if this doesn't win (at the very least, get nominated) for an FX Oscar next year. (I'm curious to read some articles about the movie, because many times I was wondering often what was physical, and what was digital.) My favourite scene: the entire chunk on the island to dig up Davy's locker, from arrival to leaving: every little piece was perfectly put together: the sword-fights, the chases, the visual gags. My favourite moment has to be Keira Knightley's double-take as the waterwheel rolls past.
My biggest disappointment: the Kraken. I'm sure somebody will probably say that it was an homage to Harryhausen (right down to its mottled colour scheme), but its scenes were largely static, and -- like "Superman" -- seemed to go on forever. We're in an era when filmmakers need to ask themselves not "can we put this on the screen?", but "should we put this on the screen?" Sometimes, less is more.
Bloom and Depp coast along on zombie-pilot. Knightley's oddly improved a bit. Pryce was less campy than last time around.
My favourite character: Jack Davenport's Norrington, leagues stronger and more interesting than his bland performance in the first movie. I was surprised he was even in the flick, as he's barely mentioned in reviews. I'm almost hoping in the next movie, we that we find out Bloom's Knightley's sister, Depp doesn't want to get involved, and Knightly realises Davenport WAS the man for her after all.
Far better than the turgid "Superman", possibly on the level of "X-3". The "island" scene worth the price of admission alone.
Still. It'd be really good to see just ONE movie this summer that actually truly deserved serious accolades. Where, oh where, is it???!