A Few Good Spots but Way Too Long

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2011)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
** (out of 4)
Sequel to the 2003 blockbuster has lovebirds Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) being arrested for "helping" the pirate Jack Sparrow. The two are facing the death penalty unless they can get that magical compass from Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and so begins another overblown storyline. I wasn't the greatest fan of the original movie but I thought it had enough good moments to make those summer blockbuster fans happy. I read a few reviews of this sequel and noticed that it too made a killing at the box office but for the life of me I can't understand why. It's fair to say that I'm just not a fan of the series. It's also fair to say that I'm wrong in my thoughts on it. I guess it's fair to say that I'm being overly harsh towards this type of movie but for the life of me I can't figure out who could be entertained by a 151-minute "B" movie that seems to forget to be fun in the first place. I wasn't too happy with the extended running time for the first film so added even more time just hit me by a complete surprised and I just don't see why it was needed. It's not like we're dealing with an epic story or something series. We've got a "B" adventure film that used to play to kids at matinees each Saturday back in the day but for some reason they take this simple genre and try to make it something bigger and in my opinion they failed big time. There are countless problems with this film but the biggest is the fact that both Bloom and Knightley have their characters cut down to the point where both are incredibly boring and neither adds a thing to the picture. Bloom seems to be sleepwalking through the part and for the most part Knightley just stands around waiting to be rescued. Depp is back and needless to say he's the best thing about the picture but at the current running time I was even growing tired of him by the 90-minute mark. Depp at least seems to be in on the fact that this is a "B" movie and makes his character fast and fun. The rest of the supporting players were all rather bland but I will say Geoffrey Rush was good in his few moments. Once again the film is full of CGI, which is both hit and miss as there are times where it completely overtakes the story with outrageous and unrealistic action scenes. The monsters this time out are rather unique looking because of how strange they are. I'm not sure I'd call them good looking monsters but I found the visual look of them to be interesting. Again, I'm sure DEAD MAN'S CHEST has a ton of fans out there but I'm clearly not one of them.