A Let Down

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2006)

I write this to (A) vent a little, and (B) hope that Disney gets so much feedback they have to think about the next one. If the third film is already in the can I guess it won't matter much. My family was really looking forward to this sequel. The first really surprised me. It was so much fun, but Dead Man's Chest was not, in my opinion, a worthy follow up. The story seems to betray the work put into endearing these characters to us in The Curse of the Black Pearl. Jack was daring and fairly courageous in Curse, but spends most of this movie fleeing danger and abandoning his friends, the friends who stick up for him at the beginning of Dead Man's Chest. There was nothing I could find appealing about him in this one. His overtures to Elizabeth seemed totally out of place, and her betrayal of him at the end seemed to be equally out of place with her character. Given the story line I guess it fit, but it left me feeling they should have had a different storyline. Perhaps I am guilty of seeing more in Jack Sparrow than I should,yes I know it's a movie, but the purpose is draw us in, and leaving the audience feeling let down is not the purpose in making a film. They want to endear someone to us to draw us back. That's why Jack's pirate with an honest streak appeals. He did come back to the aid of his friends at the end, only to be shackled to the boat and left to face the monster alone BY ELIZABETH! Will's part was not bad, but not the role he had in the first either. Why was the East India Company able to overthrow an English governor and arrest him, only to need his help with the crown in the end? Why were soldiers following East India's orders? If the governor could be released to help in their plan he must not be in serious trouble with the crown. That bothered me. The other thing that bothers me is that the background and conspiracies and magical background was explained to the audience through thick accents that left me wondering what I had just heard. Perhaps that's why I am so confused about the whole East India thing, maybe I just couldn't follow the villains explanations. I am still confused on the whole Davy Jones heart/curse thing. My 13 and 12 year olds couldn't follow the plot unless I whispered explanations throughout. My 7 year old loved it, but he never gets the plot. He's there for the swords and there were plenty to thrill him. I hope that the 3rd installment will be so great that it will obscure this muddled attempt. Disney, I am not the only one saying this, so read and make the adjustments before this great trilogy is ruined. The last scene was great, I'll give them that.