Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

With great success comes a great sequel; thus spake Uncle Ben's lesser known younger brother, Uncle Tim. And we've had several examples, ranging from this genre to that. Does Pirates fall under the category? Unfortunately, no! The first film was great, no doubt about it, but this sequel wasn't so much. In the first film they didn't even try to be funny, they just did it naturally and effortlessly, but over here they tried too hard, and limped too badly. Everyone seemed lazy, too tired, too fed up, as if they were all chained to large shackles. Although this sequel does resemble Empire Strikes Back somewhat - Jack Sparrow and Han Solo are captured and the rest of the characters must rescue him; which happens in the third part - it actually shares the same soul as The Matrix trilogy. The first Matrix is legendary: the second a stick in the mud, but quite enjoyable.

I know, they had to expand the story, but couldn't they have done it in an enjoyable way? Seriously, the way everyone was dragging their feet as if stuck in quick-sand made this 2 and a half hour feature feel like a 4 hour epic. Also, it was unnecessarily dark and dwelled quite a bit too much into religion for my taste. What's the harm in keeping it children friendly? Why is it that whenever someone, anyone, everyone gets a free reign, the first thing they do is go dark? or stray terribly off-course? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy dark films, but since Curse was a quite light-hearted, family-friendly entertainment, a dark and violent sequel wasn't called for. I'm currently downloading the third part, and let's see if that's better of the trio or not!

From the performances, Johnny Depp was as usual up to the mark, but the main spotlight was Bill Nighy as Davy Jones. Although initially disappointed that they followed up a comedic villain from the first film - Hector Barbossa - to a nonsensical character, Davy Jones eventually warmed up to me as an excellent successor. The character was dominating, the acting amazing. It felt real, with every twitch a convincing one. Bill Nighy did a brilliant job. The rest of the cast, especially those returning for the second time, were all great once again, albeit a little tired and dazed looking. Newcomer Naomi Harris impressed me by her performance as Dai Lama. It was a fascinating performance, a good blend of both comic and seriousness.

In conclusion, Dead Man's Chest has some very convincing moments regarding Davy Jones but is too silly in almost every other part. The one where Will and the band of miscreants tumble down the hill in a ball of bones - seriously, no broken bones? no deaths? Also, the three way fight between Will, Jack and Norrington on top of the giant wheel. Quite impressive, yes, but it was Indiana Jones and company falling from a plane on a waterbed 12,000 feet to safety on the snow all over again!

7.0/10