mixed bag

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2006)

Like any other viewer anticipating the sequel of one of their favorite movies, I entered the midnight showing of POTC:DMC with high hopes. And why shouldn't I? The first in the series was such a delightful combination of swashbuckling action, crisp comic relief, and rousing musical cues.
With that said, the sequel tries to top all those but save for the action part, fails. While including some new jokes, the movie's humor becomes too dependent on references to the first film. For instance, there were about 3 too many "rum" jokes. By now, the jokes have become stale and no fun anymore. The timing of the comic relief is another issue. Comic relief works best when its "relief" from the drama and action happening in the story....hence the term. It's entirely too prominent in some areas and loses its effect when it should heighten the entertainment value of the film.
Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa was a far better villain than Davy Jones, who was horribly underdeveloped and had no personality. He was just...there. "I'm mean because I have a squid for a head." He was cool to look at, but didn't say too many interesting things, unlike Barbossa whose banter with Jack Sparrow was one of the highlights of the first film.
Speaking of the main character, I was trying to explain to a friend why I didn't appreciate this movie as much as the first. It's simply because in the first one, no one expected Captain Jack Sparrow to be the instantly memorable icon that he is now, and now that the mystery of the character is solved, and now that we've seen what he can do, it seems like there's nothing new he can tell us. He can say some funny lines, stretch his face to the limits, but there's not much Johnny Depp can do to further his character's charm.
There were some improvements over the first movie. It has more of a "pirate-y" feel. The special effects look decidedly less hokey than the first, and the effects with the Kraken are particularly impressive. There are also some extremely inventive sword fight scenes, including one involving a giant wheel.
With too many subplots, the story becomes tangled until you wish the movie had more forward direction. You finally get to the end, which includes and extremely out of character decision by one of the main characters, an abrupt finale, and a major cliffhanger. It sets up for a spectacular 3rd installment, but hopefully next time there will be less subplots, leaving room for the expertly timed wit and story progression that was so masterfully handled in the first movie.