Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest [M]

The infamous Captain Jack Sparrow is not as smooth and carefree as he seems. He’s got a debt to pay to none other than Davy Jones. Jack’s time is up and he must serve one hundred years before the mast on the Flying Dutchman or else be left to the mercy of the Kraken. There is one way Jack can get out of his predicament: find the chest that holds the still-beating heart of Davy Jones. Armed with that leverage, Jack’s fate may be a bit brighter. 

With the unanticipated success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, two new writers have come in and decided to make Pirates of the Caribbean a trilogy (they’ve actually made a fourth one recently). All our favourite characters are back for another swashbuckling adventure with more action, more action, and more action than the first one. 

The infamous Captain Jack Sparrow is not a smooth and carefree as he seems. He’s got a debt to pay to none other than Davy Jones. Jack’s time is up and he must serve one hundred years before the mast on the Flying Dutchmen or else be left to the mercy of the Kraken. There is one way Jack can get out of his predicament: find the chest that holds the still-beating heart of Davy Jones. Armed with that leverage, Jack’s fate may be a bit brighter. However, there are dangers and troubles surrounding the issue of finding the chest, which are only heightened when Will Turner and Elizabeth turn up to get Jack’s compass to bargain for their lives. Each with their own problems, can they find the chest and save their skins before it’s too late? 

Although this film was just as fun and rollicking as the first film, I do feel that there was more emphasis placed upon the special effects and the swordfights were a little too extravagant. Even the script seemed as though it was trying really hard to be as funny as the first movie and, therefore, did not end up being so. 

Joining our original cast line up of Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly, Mackenzie Crook, Kevin R. McNally, Lee Arenberg, Jack Davenport, and Jonathan Pryce are a few new faces including Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, Stellen Skarsgard as Bootstrap Bill Turner, Tom Hollander as Cutler Beckett, and Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma. 

The special effects and computer graphics went all out for this one. In Curse of the Black Pearl the only real computer generated characters were the cursed pirates, whereas in Dead Man’s Chest there are computer generated characters left, right, and centre and because there are so many thrown at you, the film lost that genuine good-movie vibe that was so evident in the first one. All in all, this did not feel like a Pirates movie, there was too much emphasis placed upon stunts and computer graphics and that tipped the scale and overpowered the genuinely memorable characters and clever writing. It seemed as though all departments on this film were battling to be the centre of attention and, at the end of the day, that doesn’t make a real sastisfactory film. 

Filled with humorous punch lines, epic swordfights, heaps of computer graphics, and memorable characters, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was a fun and rollicking movie, but was nowhere near as brilliant as the first one. Lightning never strikes twice in the same spot and that’s the case with this film unfortunately.