Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man's Chest Rocks the Boat!

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2006)

I was one of the many that went to see the midnight showing on Thursday night. I, for one, saw the original in the theater when it first came out, and thought it was a great movie, I however wasn't prepared to say it was the best movie ever as so many of the population was saying. As such, I had never gotten around to buying the DVD.
I saw the teaser trailer for Pirates 2, back in Dec. when The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe came out. Being a Disney movie as well, of course it would be shown as a trailer. I have to admit the teaser really didn't show much of the movie at all, just enough to peak my interest. It wasn't until later I saw the full blown Theatrical Trailer that I decided that the second movie looked darker and better than the first one.
I bought my ticket around 9:00pm, and waited around for 3 hours to go see the movie, as i waited, more and more people showed up in line for the movie, a couple of kids even brought the first movie on a portable DVD player, and were watching it while they waited. Finally we were all herded into the theaters that were showing the movie, this is the third movie that I have seen now that used a Digital Projector. One of the managers came out to inform us we were in for a spectacular show, and thus the lights dimmed and the trailers began, and finally, the movie. Of the trailers the next movie I am excited to see is Lady in the Water.
I must admit that i wasn't completely sure what was going on in the beginning, since the movie begins with things in action, Will and Elizabeth being arrested for helping and consorting with pirates, mainly Jack Sparrow. Thus interrupting their wedding, Will goes searching for Captain Jack, to trade, Jack's compass for his and Elizabeth's lives to be spared from death. At the same time, Jack has just escaped from a prison to retrieve a drawing of a key, a key that he needs desperately, so that he may evade Davey Jone's Curse.
Many people have complained that Johnny Depp has less one liners than the first movie, and that the movie could have been better with more of Sparrow's famous lines. I actually think the fact that the first movie introduced Jack Sparrow with such gusto, is more than enough to make up for the lacking of lines, Johnny still played the slightly tipsy pirate as he had in the first, and where he had less one liners, he was a lot more genuine in his approach to the situations, this movie was more about him, and his dilemma, the stakes were much higher, so the small bits of comedic play really wasn't needed as much.
From the island of cannibals, to the visit of the Voodoo Woman, and from searching for the chest that the key goes to, to the climatic ending, which includes: a hilarious 3-way sword fight on a runaway water wheel, a death, a sinking, and a surprising resurrection, the second movie will blast all the other summer movies out of the box office this summer.
With a playing time of 2 hrs, 31 min. I was thinking that the movie was gonna be comparably shorter than Superman Returns, which itself clocks in at 2 hrs, 45 min. While Superman flew by, Dead Man's Chest felt as though it exceeded the length of Superman, I almost felt that the movie would never end, and it definitely felt as though i was in the seat for longer than 2 1/2hrs. When the movie ended so suddenly the way it did, i finally figured out why there was already a release date for the 3rd installment for next year. It was because Pirates of the Caribbean had finally entered the sacred realm of the movie trilogy. This movie does move sort of slowly in the beginning because of having to explain whats happening as it happens, but once the dilemma for the second movie is explained, the swashbuckling adventure begins with a quite a few surprising plot twists.