The "dark side" and the "light side" are mixed up

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2006)

It happened that I had to watch this movie on rather small computer screen with crappy sound, so I expected those annoyances to spoil the entertainment. Amaizingly, I was deep inside the movie after first several minutes and forgot about everything around. Still, the feeling is strange...
The quality of the movie was great by all means, it is the plot that made me somewhat perplexed. The first movie in trilogy (yes, it is going to be a trilogy) was much more straightforward: romantic love drove the whole plot, and the confrontation was obvious: the pirate against the law, the captain against the mutineers.
This sequel brought a lot of contradictions into the plot: now the enemies are friends and friends are enemies. Everyone of main characters sometimes acts on the evil side, even Elizabeth, when she condemned Jack Sparrow to death for selfish reasons. Everything starts as a noble quest caused by injustice and love, but quickly turns to the marathon of individual ambitions.
Jack Sparrow looses his heroic appearance and becomes a sneaky bastard for the major part of the movie. Will and Elizabeth seem to forget about their love, he looks after helping his father, and she is preoccupied with the idea of turning Jack Sparrow to a good side, and apparently flirting with him. Which does not stop her from meanly trading his life for others safety after a long and passionate good-bye kiss.
Commandor Norrington is not a nobleman any more, he becomes a drunkard and is now preoccupied with his own ambitions, and he is ready to cut the throat for that. The members of the crew turn their sides several times during the movie, but nobody hold that against them, it is considered "normal". Well, pirates they are.
In other words, there are no "good" and "bad" characters in this movie as they were in the "The Curse of the Black Pearl". Even the biggest villains of the previous movie are employed to help the heroes in this one.
Personally, I welcome such a dualism in the main characters. This breaks a long lasting tradition of pure "good" and "evil" and makes the movie more "realistic". I still wonder how children will take that. Will it teach them that they have equal right to do good and evil things? But I understand why ghosts of the sea are not very frightening. This is by no means a horror movie for children, it is an adventure. And a good one, at that.
So I give this movie +10, since it is a wonderful entertainment. And I am forced to be waiting for the third part of the trilogy to see who will end up on the "dark" and who on the "light" side.