Film Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Dead Man's Chest

Dead Man’s Chest is rather bloated

AARRGHH! Let’s dispense with the jolly yo-ho-hos and just get it out of the way; Pirates of the Caribbean 2 isn’t a great movie. Like most sequels, it suffers from a many great pitfalls and shortcomings that tend to be the result of a mish-mash of ideas thrown together in hopes of recapturing some of the magic that made the first one so great. The filmmakers appear to have built the second installment solely on Johnny Depp’s Keith Richards impression. And lets face it; Keith Richards isn’t all that interesting to begin with. For the majority of the movie, the success of the gags and bits rely on Depp’s ability to pull off another round of Captain Jack Sparrowisms and while there are still plenty of good laughs, there is only so much of it one can take.

Especially since it’s for 150 minutes.

150 minutes!

Even the last Lord of the Rings didn’t feel this long.

Nonetheless, while Dead Man’s Chest is rather bloated, it is still quite the summer experience. And if you, as a summer movie fan, can get past some of these shortcomings, will find a good time can be had.

The film picks off where the first left off- with Will Turner (Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightely) on the brink of marriage. Their plans for a blissful life are thwarted when Lord Beckett and his mighty East India Trading Company arrests them for aiding Sparrow and forces their hand into doing some dirty work. Faced with the thought of losing Elizabeth once again, our bold, bighearted (but decidedly pea-brained) junior pirate is pressed into action to recover the hidden secrets of Davy Jones. Cue said Sparrowisms and the usual pirate brouhaha for an absurdly long amount of time and you get Pirates of the Carribbean 2. Verbinski makes light work of story cohesion and focuses strongly on some good old fashion plundering. When the film picks up, it can be quite the riotous ride buoyed by some fantastic camera work, all-out visual chaos and at one point, the ingenious use of a giant water mill wheel. These hallmark scenes truly recapture the excitement and fun of the first film and are the very reasons one should go see it.

The aforementioned Davy Jones (Nighy) and his ill-doing crew are perhaps some of the ugliest, most detailed computer-assisted pirates one will ever come across. While the nogood-doers of the first (Captain Barbossa and company) were creepy in that supernatural, chilling sort of way, Davy Jones’ decidedly sealike band of rogues are far more on the slimy, “I think I’ll pass on the sushi” side. They themselves aren’t all too scary, but their all-consuming sea monster known as “the cracken” makes for some riveting sea-faring cinema (it’s all very 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Moby Dick-ean almost) as it consumes one vessel after another. And when the film goes big, it’s great. But when it tries to get close and intimate (especially the bizarrely awkward triangle between Sparrow, Swann, and Turner), well, lets just say the fire is categorically damp.

Shortcomings aside, there is enough in the film to justify the franchise’s success. And like The Two Towers of the Lord of the Rings series, Dead Man’s Chest is without a clear ending. It’s the ol’ “hey, now we’ve got you roped into seeing the third one” closer that leaves the filmgoer either excited for the third installment, or rather frustrated. It’s still quite the ride though, and if you can sit through its lengthy runtime and occasional lost of direction, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 can be the perfect swash-buckling getaway for the warm summer days.

AAARRGHH!

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightely, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy