Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is undoubtedly one of the most hotly awaited films of the year. You don’t need to have seen the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (made in 2003) to watch this film, but certain aspects of the storyline do carry through into this one.

Primarily of course this film follows the adventures of the loveable scamp Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Quite why they love him is anyone’s guess as he seems to have no redeeming features whatsoever. Well in fact they don’t really love him, they somehow just don’t seem able to truly convince themselves that they don’t. Having escaped colonial justice and a terrible curse in the first film, Jack has an even greater enemy to overcome this time – legendary sea-faring myth Davy Jones (Bill Nighy – plus a lot of CGI!) – who just happens to be real. Jack is after a great treasure, a treasure beyond price – but Jones not only doesn’t want him to have that, he also wants him to repay a certain debt…

For their part in aiding Jack in his previous adventures, William Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) are put in prison awaiting hanging – instead of getting married and having their honeymoon (just a slight change of plan, that). Eeeeeevil Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) offers William a proposal – Jack Sparrow has something he wants, and tells William that if he can get it , his sentence can be dropped.

And… a whole load of other characters and sub-plots. More than you could shake a stick at in fact. While you’re shaking that stick, you’ll probably be expecting plenty of action sequences and humour in this film considering its prequel, and considering the fact that it’s a Bruckheimer film and directed by Gore Verbinski, the man behind the first film. You’d be right, of course – there are indeed many action sequences which are well filmed, and lots of humour. Johnny Depp continues to play Sparrow as a very eccentric and quite camp character, though at times his performance seemed more affected than eccentric. He’s still good for a laugh though on more than a few occasions. Orlando Bloom gets to be quite a bit more interesting than in the first film, and his stature as an actor won’t be done any harm by his performance here. Keira Knightly’s character is pretty boring in the first half of the film (practically invisible in fact), but she gets to have some fun towards the end. Kevin McNally as Gibbs, Sparrow’s First Mate, gives a superb performance and his air of long-suffering endurance is captured perfectly. Meanwhile we have comic relief in the form of Pintel and Ragetti, the first pragmatic and the second philosophical. Played by Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook, they are good for a laugh every time they’re on screen.

Dead Man’s Chest has a rollicking plot that moves along swiftly, but fails to capture the epic mood it seems to be aiming for. The special effects were a mixed bunch, I found – some of them were impressive but others had that obvious blue screen look while a few scenes simply looked unconvincing. The cinematography (Dariusz Wolski) was superb and the rolling shots of the ocean almost made you feel seasick. The ever dependable Hans Zimmer provided an excellent and stirring musical score. At two and a half hours the film does seem slightly too long, especially as the ending is so disappointing. However it is very entertaining for the most part (the stunt work in particular is excellent) and well worth watching. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first film admittedly, but it was still a swashbuckling adventure not to be missed. (And where else are you going to see a film with an undead monkey?!?)

This isn’t the end of the story though for the Caribbean piratey folk, we’ll have to wait till next year for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for the final part of the adventure.

Rating: 12A (PG-13) for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images.


Related Links

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Johnny Depp - Benny and Joon
Keira Knightly - Pride and Prejudice
Orlando Bloom - Elizabethtown


See also: My Top Ten Movies of 2006

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Duration