Not As Bad As People Say

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2007)

I read a review of 'Dead Man's Chest' which said it's plot was too 'labyrinthine' and that Captain Jack should have jettisoned the original cast and sailed into new waters. While bringing a new supporting cast would've been interesting, this film works fine with the original.
Following Captain Jack's (another brilliant turn by the chameleon-like Johnny Depp) efforts to stop Davey Jones (unrecognisable Bill Nighy) from seizing his soul with his deadly leviathan (a Kraken, for that 1% of the world's population who haven't seen the film) the film is a combination of everything that was good and bad in the first film, skipping the so-so bits.
For instance, the set-pieces in 'Curse of the Black Pearl' were good but there weren't enough. In DMC, we get a cannibal tribe, a water-wheel fight, and a Kraken. In COTBP, we got Orlando Bloom. In DMC, we got too much of the non-acting Orlando Bloom.
Sometimes a hit-and-miss affair, but when you have Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow at his height, with this many special effects, this many set pieces, this many wise-cracks ("You smell funny!" "I got a jar of dirt... I got a jar of dirt..."), and this much fun, it's hard to see the problems.