Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2006)

When Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was released in the summer of 2003, it was a breath of fresh air in the world of blockbusters, managing to be light-hearted and fun, whilst adding a touch of horror and buckets of humour. Unfortunately, Dead Man's Chest has taken the route of many sequels; disguise the fact that it is not fresh anymore by making it look prettier. And that is probably the best way to sum Dead Man's Chest. It's not a bad film, but it's certainly not as good as the first.
Most of the cast have returned, and this is actually one of the films' problems. At the end of the first film the cast had all separated, and so the sequel needs to find ways to bring them all back together again, and this results in a plodding first half hour which mounts up as episodic and badly thought through plot devices. Even Commodore Norrington returns, and his entrance and role in the film, whilst is interesting in its own way, is (at least for the moment) needless. Also needless are the return of Ragetti and Pintel as the (unnecessary, given the fact that Jack Sparrow is the source of all the humour) comic relief, who really aren't that comic at all.
The point about Norrington brings up the next big fault. As it is the first part of the two sequel story, Dead Man's Chest is not a film that can stand up on its own; it is only half a story. This may mean that come May 2007, all the various plot points will make sense, but at the moment they are all too far-stretched to makes a whole lot of sense. There are also really too many different plot strands to last its two and a half hour running time (which is itself about half an hour too long).
There are good points about the film, of course. The effects are nothing short of staggering (although some of the fishy crew of the Flying Dutchman are not quite as good as the rest), especially Bill Nighy's Davy Jones who has a multi-tentacled beard. Nighy himself is good in the role, but Davy Jones never seems as menacing or, quite frankly, as good as Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa. Also good is Stellan Skarsgård as Bootstrap Bill, Will Turner's father. Will is a little darker but Orlando Bloom lacks the gravitas to pull off such a character turn. Knightley's Elizabeth Swann is also different, showing a more pirate side to her actions, at least making her a little more exciting even if Knightley herself doesn't entirely convince.
The star is once again Depp's Jack Sparrow; even though, like the whole film itself, his act is not as fresh, he is given enough to work with so that most of the humour he creates lands well. His entrance is another classic moment, and his ability to run away as well as he can swagger is often hilarious  he even manages to build on his role from the first film.
There is plenty of action, and although it can be thrilling, it feels a little too over-the-top to truly impress at times. However, much of it is well handled, and injects a little more fun into proceedings, just when the audience begins to think that the film has begun to take itself too seriously to be fully enjoyable. It is now down to film number three to see whether the franchise is strong enough to stay afloat; the last ten minutes of Dead Man's Chest has three plot twists that at least will make us come back for the answers next summer. Overall, whilst it is enjoyable enough, it is certainly not a patch on the first, and the third entry in the series has a lot of work to do to restore audience faith in it.
Rated: 7/10
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