A thrilling tale of Pirates, buried treasure...and the horrors of the sea

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2006)

Well, what can I say? Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead man's chest has made a tense, action-packed, scary, and devastating sequel to "The Curse of the Black Pearl." For a start, the locations are fantastic; not only was this film shot at such exotic places as St. Lucia, the Bahamas, St. Vincent and Granada; the film includes a wide variety of settings which are compulsory for a film about pirates; a tropical island with hostile natives, a filthy pub populated by drunkards (an ideal place for a riot scene), as well as a ghostly shipwreck.
The characters in the film are also great, or greatly developed from the first film such as Elizabeth Swann becoming skilled with the sword and the unfortunate new fate of Commodore Norrington. They even restored the two comical pirates, Pintel and Ragetti (Ragetti is the one with a false eye) from the first film, which I think is great, as they are two people who are, although evil, funny and lovable. There is also an ethnic Caribbean wise woman, who was clearly thought up with great imagination, as well as her home, in which Ragetti stands beside a hanging jar of eyeballs, here we see an example of hilarious surrealism. What I would say were especially intriguing though were the villainous phantoms of Davy Jones' crew; unlike in the first film, these monsters are actually themed with the sea, i.e. barnacles growing on the faces, crab's claws, squid tentacles. The other great thing about the crew is that they are all individually unique (again, unlike in the first film, in which they were all just skeletons); a member of Davy Jones' crew is not just one of many ugly monsters, but he has something special to show to the audience, one pirate for example has the head of a hammer-head shark, another has a head that comes off and is able to follow its body by becoming a hermit crab. The portrayal of Davy Jones furthermore speaks for himself, and has been gruesomely but skillfully made by the costume designer to stand out as the authority amongst his crew. The conceptual artists of this film had a very gifted imagination I must say.
The music score for the film is great, they kept the action theme tune from the first film, but added an extra 'B' part to the music, which, I think has been a success, as it sounds good and goes very well with the 'A' part. As I recall from one scene, as Captain Jack, Elizabeth Swann, Norrington, Pintel and Ragetti are walking across a vast beach towards the camera, the zoom focuses in quickly as significant beats of the music strike. I don't think I have seen this sort of correspondence before in a very instrumental, "thick" piece of film music, so I think the director Gore Verbinski was good in not being afraid to try something new. The script of the film is also brilliant and is very funny. Lines come up which you wouldn't really expect as well. These are too hilariously unexpected that I will not mention any examples (it will spoil the moment).
A few aspects of this film are comparable to Steven Spielberg's version of "The War of the Worlds", namely towering tentacles rising and swirling themselves high above ships crow's nests, snatching the odd extra and flinging them through the air now and then, and the dreaded roar of 'the Kracken' (The Scandanavian grim-reaper of the sea), who is comparable to 'the sarlacc' from "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" in a way with its infinite teeth circling its whole mouth. Believe me, Walt Disney knows what he's doing here, as they did a version of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", which, as we all know contains a giant squid. The other great thing about the Kracken is that we don't see its whole body at first. The sight from a distance of enormous tentacles dragging down a helpless ship is enough to send a shiver down one's spine. Furthermore, we have a sense of overpowering mystery when we don't see the whole thing. We see it underwater briefly through the eyes of Will Turner as he watches the fate he brought upon an innocent merchant ship.
For thrill seekers, fun lovers and film lovers, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a god-send. Although it doesn't have all that much of a plot, it contains all the classic aspects of a true piracy film; a treasure map, buried treasure, chases, hostile island natives, sword fights and plenty of them, sword fights on top of big rolling wheels, a snifter of romance and drama, a crew of pirate monstrosities, and even a terrifying, tentacled sea monster! All of these aspects lead the audience to a thrilling climax, which gets the audience eating their popcorn quickly. Trust me on this, if you watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, your eyes will be glued to the screen! A film that I would recommend to everyone.
-Reviewed by James Ord in the United Kingdom