Good, But Not As Good As Black Pearl

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2006)

I remember when I first saw the poster for Pirates Of The Caribbean : The curse Of The Black Pearl I laughed. I was wondering how desperate was Disney for a hit? Then I saw trailers for it and I thought to myself, Hmm That doesn't look so bad. After hearing the rave reviews from fans and critic's alike I gave in and saw it. i walked away loving every minute of that film and did not want it to end. I did not make the same mistake beating around the bush and saw Pirates Of The Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest on opening night. While I really enjoyed this film I walked away liking the original more. Don't get me wrong there's plenty of action and the CGI was amazing, and of course Johnny Depp was brilliant but the original just had a better story line that's all. The begging of DMC starts off a little slow, however this is for character development, which is usually overlooked in Hollywood. The Crown of England is not to happy with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swan (Kierra Knightly) for helping Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) escape at the end of the original. The payment for the crime is death. Now Will Turner, to save Elizabeth's life must return with The compass of Jack Sparrow or his bride to be will die. Jack on the other hand is up to his neck in debt and his life is on the line again, this time with the evil Davey Jones, who looks incredible with all the make up they put on the actor. The only way for Jack to be truly free is for him to find the "Dead Man's Chest" and stab the contents of the chest to kill Jones (That would be Jones's heart). However Jack is not going to surrender the compass to find the chest so easily to Turner, and he doesn't care that Ms. Swan's life is in trouble. In the meantime the only way Jones has said that Jack can get out of debt is for him to gather 100 souls for Jones and thus the rat race begins. Depp, who is one of the best character actor I've ever seen (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Ichabod Crane, Willy Wonka, and Donnie Brasco) is once again brilliant and hopefully will be nominated again for best actor for the role (he lost to Sean Penn for Mystic River). I do believe that Depp will be an Acadamy Award winner some day. As for Bloom and Kinghtly they pick up right where they left off. I think the thing that kind of bummed me out the most about Pirates 2 was the ending. While I won't give it away, let's just say that it's becoming more and more of a gimmick in Hollywood nowadays's to have the type of ending that Pirates 2 had. I think the thing that was so great about the original was that it was a sleeper hit. No one thought it would do well and it took the box office by storm. I'm not saying I didn't like Pirates 2, I thought it was great and also didn't want it to end. I just enjoyed the original more that's all. On a scale of 10 I give Pirates Of The Caribbean : Dead man's Chest an 8. With plenty of action, great effects, and plenty of laughs it a great film, just not as good as the original.