Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Do the pirates sink or swim?

by: averagejoe 2 years, 2 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 13 minutes ago

Release Date:

7/7/06

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Series:

Pirates of the Caribbean

 

Continuing the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, and the misfit crew of The Black Pearl, “POTC2” is definitely a much larger scale, and adventurous film than it’s previous incarnation but that doesn’t necessarily make it better.

While I enjoyed the film immensely (it managed to keep me awake despite it being 1:15am), I often found myself questioning who’s film this really was. In the first film it was clearly Jack Sparrow that charmed people into making it one of the most successful films of all time, however in the sequel it almost seemed as if Jack and Will were fighting not only over the “Dead Man’s Chest” but for the affection of 16yr old girls everywhere.

In my opinion Johnny Depp is without a doubt one of the greatest character actors to ever appear on the big screen. He has brought to life so many of my favorite characters, which means I will automatically line up to see anything with his name attached to it. Having said that, I did have my doubts when the original “Pirates” was released, because I, like many of you thought to myself “how are they going to make a movie based on a ride from Disneyland?” Well it’s now apparent with the release of “POTC” and "Haunted Mansion" that sometimes you can, and sometimes you shouldn’t even try. Depp’s performance alone about the misunderstood Captain was worth the price of admission alone.

Now while I like the character of Will Turner, and I do like Orlando Bloom as an actor (the man brought life to Legolas...come on) I just had a problem with him almost overshadowing Jack during the course of the film. Yes, we all know the underage girls just LOVE Orlando Bloom and he’s definitely one of the main reasons many female viewers went to see this film, but for me I just found it to be unsettling to see Sparrow and Turner compete for screen time like I felt they did. I realize this is a small complaint to make when looking at the bigger picture, but I feel it only right to discuss the negative aspects of the film along with the positive....I really hope that makes sense to you.

What I REALLY enjoyed about this film, was the new characters they introduced such as Davey Jones and Will Turner’s Father “Bootstrap” Bill Turner. The designs that were created for these characters are some of the best I’ve ever seen. The scenes involving the sea-creature were astounding, and I was blown away not only with Davey Jones’ look, but the performance delivered by Bill Nighy...he COMPLETELY sold this character for me, even his voice was great! I mean we’ve all heard about Davey Jones, and that infamous locker of his, but for me this was the first time actually physically seeing this legendary character, and for me he couldn’t have been any better. Another welcome addition to the cast was veteran actor Stellan Skarsgard as Will Turner’s long-lost-pappy “Bootstrap” Bill Turner. Skarsgard did an excellent job with the scenes he was given, and during the course of the film you really begin to believe that “Bootstrap” feels a sense of remorse for not being around to see Will grow up, and this movie tells us why. Another thing worth mentioning that I found particularly satisfying was how they depicted Sparrow’s sense of heroism at certain points of the film. We all know Captain Jack is a pirate, and with that title comes a certain list of expectations on how one would act, but Captain Jack is an honorable man....sort of, and during certain scenes in the film you will find yourself cheering for his nobility and courage....of course then he reverts back to the same ol’ Jack Sparrow we all know and love, but it’s nice while it lasts.

Actually I would say that despite Depp’s performance as Jack Sparrow, the highlight of the film was definitely the scenes involving The Flying Dutchman (Jones’ ship) and it’s crew of crustacean-infested baddies (which once again looked AMAZING). I can’t give enough praise to the visual FX team that worked on “POTC2” because they’ve truly outdone themselves with the special FX in this film. Most people say that Golem or King Kong are the single best CGI characters in film history, yet I would argue that point after seeing Davey Jones in action....he was that good.

Overall, I think I liked the first one just a little bit more, but it’s not to say this one was bad by any means....a bit slow in some areas, and at one point it seemed to drag on just a little, but I will give the producers credit for creating a cliffhanger at the end of the film that left everyone in the audience saying “oh come on, now we have to wait a year!?” it reminds me of the feeling I had going into see the first two Lord of the Rings films. After each one ended I just sat back and thought “great, now we have to wait an entire year!”...oh well, there’s plenty of good films on the horizon to keep us entertained until Captain Jack and his crew set sail for the last time.