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

Let me first tell you a tale of the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood, his love Elaine Marley, his nemesis the evil undead pirate LeChuck, and the notorious secrets of Monkey Island. Sound familiar? If you were a video game enthusiast of the early 90's it should. The Monkey Island game series was one of the main influences that sparked my fascination for Pirates (the other influence being the original C64 game "Pirates!"). I loved Monkey Island because not only did it include traditional real world pirate themes (ships, treasure, sword fighting, exotic local, etc.) it also included more of the romantic themes such as those of the legendary Sinbad (epic adventure, super natural creatures, mystic treasure, etc). And on top of all that they threw in an extra large serving of humor. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies have recreated that model, and added a load of special effects eye candy. This might be as close to a film adaptation of Monkey Island as we'll ever get (especially considering how bad game->film adaptations have been done lately). I'm not the only person who sees the similarities, even Ron Gilbert. However I enjoy the irony of the situation (as MI was reputed to be semi inspired by the PotC ride, and now fanatics are up in arms about PotC being a rip of MI. I see it as being more of a homage. Darci and I went to see PotC2 last night at Cinetopia. I've been anxiously awaiting the release of this movie and would have loved to see it at the midnight showing on premiere night. However since this movie is somewhat of a family film, I decided it would be best to wait and see it in a 21+ environment so the kiddies didn't ruin my theatre experience. Overall I was very happy with the film, and strongly recommend it. A little long with a run time of 150mins, but I barely even noticed as they make good use of that time and suck you in. Go see the film and then come back and read my detailed thoughts below.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Pros:

• Boot Strap Bill: From the last movie, I was aware that they could bring back Will Turner's father, Boot Strap Bill, as he was also part of the Aztec Gold curse, and would simply have been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for years in an undead state. And the mention of his father to Will Turner added a sense of history, that I was hoping would be brought back.
• Davey Jones: Adding the menace of Davey Jones helps provide a tangible entity to the mythology of Davey Jones's Locker. I think it made for a great plot point.
• Voodoo Priestess: I loved that they included her character. Her scenes helped to add to the supernatural feeling of the film, and sort of bridged the gap between reality and mysticism that occurs in the film. Plus it seems that she has a long history with Capt.. Jack Sparrow, so hopefully there is more explained about that in the 3rd film. (Note: Although it seems she has the same heart shaped music locket as Davey Jones, is she is heart broking love interest?
• Captain Jack Sparrow: once again Johnny Depp makes the movie, his character really develops in this film and ties everything together. I don't think any other actor could have played that role and been so successful.
• Special Effects: Overall the effects were great. Especially on Dave Jones and some of the key members of his crew. However I think that the CGI became overwhelming during shots of the crew all together. They repeated textures of the coral/barnacle skin and the darkness of the shots made all the crew members and the ship blend together too much. A few times it looked like a wash of grey & black, with Will Turner standing out amongst it. I think they could have used more hands on makeup for a few members of the crew like used on Boot Strap Bill. And since it's shown that Davey Jones is constantly gaining fresh crewmen, they might have varied the degree of sea life decay a bit more.
• Good Vs. Bad: I was happy to see them show the internal struggle within all the characters. Each developed either rising to new heights, or sinking to new lows. It truly shows the romanticism of piracy, that even a bad guy can be good at times, and the purest of us can be evil when our lives are on the line.
• Midgets: I was delighted to see the midget pirate. Midgets crack me up. In every scene the midget is in, he is constantly doing something funny. It's sort of like a "Where's Waldo" Book. In every scene I'm looking for the midget to see what he's doing LOL

Cons:

• The Cliff Hanger: While cliff hangers just seem more of a copout to make a long movie into two parts so it can make more money, I wasn't too pissed about this one. They tell enough of a story, and wrap things up in a way that you feel satisfied. Although the setup at the end really makes me want more. I was glad to hear that they filmed PC2 & PC3 simultaneously so that we only have to wait a year to pick things back up, and complete the adventure. I just hope that they don't tie off all the loose ends in part 3, so that there is enough to elaborate or spin-off of for a part 4.
• Special Effects: See comment above
• The Cracken, Attack #2: Well I guess it's officially attack #3 because there was the scene he ate the East Indian Trading vessel early in the film when they fish Jack's hat out of the ocean. Anyhow, I don't get why then loaded up the black powder & Rum, hoisted it in the air, and blew it up? Okay, I see that it managed to blow up a couple of the tentacles, but it just wasn't apparent to me the mind set behind that. Wouldn't a better plot be to put it on a raft, get it to follow the raft somehow, and blow it up entirely? Maybe I need to see the film again to understand it, but at the moment I'm perplexed.