Great fun, not without its flaws

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2006)

Middle installments of trilogies often tend to suffer, especially when the original was not necessarily made with a sequel in mind. There are, however, exceptions to the rule. Put "The Empire Strikes Back" on the opposite side of the sequel coin to "Matrix Reloaded" - there most decidedly IS a precedent for second films emerging from the shadows of their predecessors.
Thus my hopes when I went in to see "Dead Man's Chest" were reasonably high. The fact that all of the original cast had returned, along with quality additions like Stellan Skarsgard and Bill Nighy, only buoyed my optimism. And surely Johnny Depp wouldn't have let himself be pulled into any old crap, contractual obligation or no.
Like "The Empire Strikes Back" this is a considerably darker affair than the all out fun of the original. The themes dealt with here are more somber - betrayals and double crossings are commonplace even among the good guys, and issues of mortality dealt with by Davey Jones and his crew make them far more frightening than the villains of the original - indeed, Barbossa and his men look almost cartoonish by comparison. There are some real scares here, and this is definitely not a film that I'd recommend to parents with young children, bladder busting running time aside.
Not to say its all gloom and doom. Definitely not. The visual effects are virtually flawless, and the action set pieces - particularly a three way sword fight between Jack, Will and Norrington while Elizabeth throws a temper tantrum (not to mention rocks) on the sidelines is fantastic. The script is great, not only containing a good measure of great one liners (of which Captain Jack predictably gets the lion's share) but also real deepening of relationships between the characters. Jack and Elizabeth in particular. Ragetti and Pintel are great fun, trading on their great rapport like they did in the original, and Norrington finally gets to be something other than a "prat in a wig" (as the lovably self deprecating Jack Davenport described himself in a magazine interview).
Inevitably, it lacks the freshness and the "wow" factor of the original. But there's nothing the filmmakers could have done to avoid that. Because, lets face it, nobody expected the original to be as successful as it was. A Disney flick based on a theme park ride starring Edward Scissorhands, Legolas and the skinny chick from "Bend it Like Beckham"? Who knew? Pleasingly, though, there's no sense of anybody resting on their laurels - in particular I had dreaded Jack's antics skirting into caricature territory but Depp is, of course, far too "savvy" an actor to fall into that trap.
The ending, like that of "Back to the Future Part II", is predictably a cliffhanger ensuring that everybody and their dog (or monkey) will drag themselves back to see part three, but oddly the feeling of being manipulated is somehow all part of the fun. And if part three is even anywhere near the quality of part two....we're in for an awesome ride...