A mildly amusing mish mash.

Rating: 5/10 (22 July 2006)

OK . .they are making pirates 2 .. great . .same director . .it is going to be hard to make a mess of this one ..
I wonder where to begin. I'm not going to talk about the plot? story? series of not so wonderfully edited film footage.
It would not be so unfortunate if this were just another computer game adaptation, or a mindless teen flick. But this is the second part of a gem of a film.
On viewing the first five minutes I was getting warning signs. I think it was when Jack Sparrow gave the map of the key to his chief mate that I suddenly had very real doubts.
The humour .. It was not just me, because I thought it might be. But the audience around me remained quite quiet during most of the film. There was the occasional titter, but nothing that would amount to full blown laughter. Why? Perhaps the writer might be able to justify this? Now I look at it, the whole film seems to be chopped up footage that does not really give us anything important save that Davey Jones is coming after Jack and there is a Kracken that can destroy ships and . .ok I am struggling here. Oh yes, they need to find the key that opens the chest containing Davey Jones's heart.
OK, now we have identified with that let's sit back and watch a mostly un amusing romp with a script that seems to give the characters less dignity.
The special effects and the makeup effects are some of the best I have seen to date. But something is terribly wrong . .because by the time I see the Kracken tearing the ship apart and looking with some considerable approval at the head mask of Davey Jones I have lost interest in anything else that I was not sure I was following correctly anyway.
Fundimentally I can say that this film seems to have no heart. No special touch of it's predecessor that hooked you warmly and with good family humour.
This film was not written very well nor was it directed with any great innovation. It's a real shame because this was one of the few films I cared about this year.
Giving it a five is generous because I am a faithful fan, Bill Nighty as Davey Jones stealing the show and stopping it from becoming a real abominable mess.
The third installment really needs to be better to simply stop this trilogy from falling into unredeemable mediocrity.