Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

• Review: ** (out of ****)
• Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Kevin McNally, David Bailie, Stellas Skarsgard, Tom Hollander, Naomie Harris, Martin Klebba
• Director: Gore Verbinski
• Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
• Length: 150 min.
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images)

In the world ofmega-blockbusters, late-planned sequels are an inevitability. Unlike films thatbegin production knowing they’ll end up a trilogy (such as The Lord of the Rings), Piratesof the Caribbean was originally designed as a stand-alone movie but whenDisney added the subtitle The Curse ofthe Black Pearl to its marketing scheme, you knew that test audiences musthave displayed enthusiastic opinions.

And rightly so. The first filmwas incredibly entertaining and, thanks to Johnny Depp as the drunken CaptainJack Sparrow, the movie was far better than it probably should have been. Theproblem is that Dead Man’s Chest became the most hyped movie of the Summer and consequently will likely be thehighest grossing one as well. But is Piratesof the Caribbean 2 really worth it all?No.

There are perfectly entertainingaspects to the sequel, mainly thanks to Depps charismatic performance. Butthere are also plenty of terribly annoying ones. Orlando Bloom seems to haveappeared on set, read his lines, done a few stunts and walked off the set.There’s no magic or passion behind his performance. There’s only stock glaresand deadpan eyes. Keira Knightley does Bloom one better. She uses the sameexpression for anger as she does for remorse. It’s such a wildly flatperformance that I’ve seen children’s art class drawings with more depth.

The supporting cast of charactersis far more entertaining this time around. With The Curse of the Black Pearl, all you had was Geoffrey Rush. Thistime, you have Stellan Skarsgard who suitably plays Will Turner’s cursed fatherBootstrap Bill, Bill Nighy donning CGI tentacles and giving a creepy, yetcredible performance as Davy Jones and the somewhat-clichéd work of NaomieHarris as Voodoo woman Tia Dalma.

The crew of the ship seems to gain a bit ofdepth. The bumbling duo Pintel and Ragetti (Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Cook)provide their fair share of laughs. But it’s First Mate Gibbs (Kevin McNally),who plays straight man to Captain Jack, who deserves a great deal of credit. Hedoesn’t get a lot of screen time in the first film but here, he shines in everyscene he’s of which he’s a part.

The premise for the second filmis that Captain Jack Sparrow has promised his service to Davy Jones in exchangefor the resurfacing of The Black Pearl, the ship that everyone wants to own.Jack refuses and thus begins Jones’ fight to get Jack into his service,destroying what he can with his pet kraken along the way.

That’s the plot. There reallyisn’t much to it. Sure, there’s a pseudo-surprise ending that leaves manyquestions unanswered and prompts us to wait for the final part to the trilogy, At World’s End, to find out what’sreally going on.

The rest of the film is paddedwith unnecessarily long action sequences. They alternate between impressive(The first few minutes of the water wheel scene) and lackluster (the fight in Tortuga). The film does feature impressive visual effectsbut that’s all there seems to be. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski does little toframe the film in more than dismal mediocrity.

Hans Zimmer, for some reason,replaced the musically intriguing Klaus Badelt. There’s nothing satisfactoryabout the score other than the strains from Badelt’s work on the first film.Perhaps these changes have more to do with Disney bosses and producers stickingtheir own fingerprints on the film or Gore Verbinski complete lack of originality.

Pirates of theCaribbean: Dead Man’s Chest boils down to asloppily-written action-adventure film with a few remarkable performances andgreat special effects. Otherwise, it’s as overblown as past crowd-pleasers Armageddon and Independence Day.

-Wesley Lovell (July 17, 2006)