Captain Jack Sparrow is back and that means he's in trouble again. As with Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack's problems run toward the supernatural. This time it's not undead pirates after the good captain, but the legendary Davy Jones, a squidlike captain who has come to collect Jack's soul as payment on a thirteen year old deal. Jack has no intention of handing over his soul too easily however, and jumps between negotiating with Davy Jones for an alternate means of payment and finding a buried treasure of particular interest to Jones - his own still-beating heart.
Jack isn't the only one after Davy Jones's heart though. The East India Trading Company has interrupted the wedding of Jack's former allies, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, arresting them and offering them a pardon only if they help find the pirate and the heart. Davy Jones isn't exactly open to negotiations either, threatening the Black Pearl with the terror of the seven seas: the kraken! Supernatural ships, monsters of the deep, backstabbing friends, and missing rum - it's just another day in the life of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Dead Man's Chest offers up more of the same great material that made the first Pirates movie so enjoyable: primarily Depp's unlikely hero. I still say his flamboyant, somewhat silly rock-star take on a pirate never should have worked. Somehow, though, Depp brings Sparrow to life in a way that is absolutely addictive, making the audience want to emulate his antics for hours after seeing the film. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly may look stunning (and they do) and bring a nice reality to the movie but it's Depp's character that makes this franchise work.
One of the more enjoyable things about Dead Man's Chest is that it isn't just a return for Bloom, Knightly, and Depp. Other familiar faces from Black Pearl also return. Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook are back in the comic relief roles they performed so well in the first film. Kevin McNally's Gibbs returns to delivering exposition to keep the audience up to speed - a role he fills excellently. Most impressive is Elizabeth's former beau, Norrington (Jack Davenport) who is the only character that really can show any sort of character progress from the last movie. Losing Elizabeth has turned him into a shell of his former arrogant self but makes him an absolute delight to watch.
Not everything is the same as Black Pearl however. Dead Man's Chest focuses more on the mythos of the pirate world and less on the swashbuckling side of things. This allows the film to add in new characters with the old - most notably Davy Jones (a CG representation of Bill Nighy) and Stellan Skarsgrd as the somber Bootstrap Bill Turner (Will's twice-cursed dad) but may leave some audience members feeling empty if they loved the swordplay more than the undead pirates of the first film. Personally I'm not one of those - I think Dead Man's Chest has a good mix of action and mythology, but I've always been interested in the mythological side of things.
Dead Man's Chest does have the difficult task of being the second movie in a trilogy that wasn't planned from the start. Like The Matrix Reloaded and Back to the Future II before it, the film has to serve as a transition that catches the audience up on what has happened to the characters since we saw them last in what was originally a final ending and also set the stage for a third film. It's a daunting task to set up two more movies in a franchise that didn't exist when the first film was made but Pirates lives up to much better than other pictures in its position. Still, that weird second film position may leave some people wanting more - especially as the film begins to abandon resolutions in the interests of getting the story set up for the next picture to come.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest recaptures the elements and characters that made the first film so enjoyable and places them in a new adventure that should entertain most fans of the first film. Even if swashbuckling adventure is more interesting to you there is some value in Dead Man's Chest - with the set up created by the this movie's ending, the third Pirates picture is almost guaranteed to have something for everyone. |
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - DVD
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