A Very Different Pirate

Rating: 7/10 (8 July 2006)

This can be compared to The Empire Strikes back, it is a lot darker, sinister and scary than the first one, and where this worked with Star Wars, I believe it is Dead Man's Chest's downfall. This is more like Matrix Reloaded than Empire Strikes Back.
Now I cannot stress enough that Dead Man's Chest is NOT a bad movie. It is just a very different film to the original, however, there are quite a few problems. The first being the characters. Far too many pointless characters returned from the original, and although it is nice to see them, there are no where near enough new characters for us to get to know. All of Jack's crew are those from the original, no new pirates, apart from the enemies.
Davey Jones is no where near as good an enemy as Barbossa, there does not seem to be much point in him, not many explanations as to why he is the way he is, he just happens to be there, and wants Captain's Jack's soul. At least Barbossa had a purpose and a goal. There are also very few scenes between Sparrow and Jones, making the whole chase seem a lot less personal.
There are also far too many jokes related to the original. No new material, such as a joke referring to Jack always being slapped by women, the dog with the keys and strapping sea turtles to their legs. Some new jokes would have been nice, although it is nice to be reminded of The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Those are the bad points, but it is still a good film. There are some amazing sequences, such as an amazing watermill based sword-fight and a hilarious chase between Captain Jack and a group of cannibals. It is a good action film, but not quite the fun fest of the original.
But...with an amazing ending scene, and plenty set up for the third movie, perhaps all these problems will be nearly ironed out by the end of the trilogy. Let's hope. A good film, but if this was the first film, it would not have been well received.