Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

So was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in any way necessary? No. Were there any questions left unanswered at the end of The Curse of the Black Pearl? No. And why was the movie made? I have no idea. But for once I’m glad that Hollywood decided to cash in instead of creating something new. I will not argue that this was an improvement over the first but it was still a fun time.

It is crazy to me that Captain Jack Sparrow became so popular that he was destined to return. Not only did he make a triumphant return, he had backup following a year later. It is obvious that this is the character that both Johnny Depp loves to play and is the character he will be remembered for when his acting career comes to an end. He is having way too much fun but who can blame him? Dead Man’s Chest is clearly a sequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl because it has the same positives and the same negative. The strong characters not named Jack Sparrow are just as strong this time around. Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth probably saw the most character development. And all of that development works to make Jack’s last line to her, “pirate”, actually carry some weight. The returning Norrington probably saw the most drastic change to start the film but it helps to actually give the man a purpose. Orlando Bloom does solid work again although this time around he gets aided by playing scenes against Stellan Skarsgard’s Bootstrap Bill. The big loss is no Captain Barbossa. And believe you me it is noticeable. This is made even worse by his return in the last scene showing you what was missing. The lack of Barbossa was tempered with the creation of Davy Jones. The combination of Bill Nighy and fantastic CGI delivered a damn impressive character. Something that is up there with Gollum as the best pure CGI characters of all-time. Another nice addition was Tia Dalma the crazy witch doctor speaking whatever dialect that was. Naomi Harris has come a long way from running from zombies in 28 Days Later. Now just like The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest is way too long. And instead excusing the length because all the characters needed introductions, this movie was too long because they just wanted as many action scenes as they could possibly fit it to one movie. It still didn’t really kill my enjoyment or have a lasting negative effect on the movie.

Although the second time around saw a bit of degradation, Dead Man’s Chest was still a helluva time. I wrote that I would be willing to watch Captain Jack Sparrow stagger around onscreen without ever tiring of his act and I still hold to that statement after the second movie. It may have been the classic bigger and grander sequel but Dead Man’s Chest proved that a good franchise could be mined from these characters.

8 out of 10