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

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

Starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Stellan Skarsgård, and Jack Davenport

Directed by Gore Verbinski

I realize this isn't necessarily popular opinion, but I think the second flick of the Pirates saga -- Dead Man's Chest -- is actually a fairly solid effort and better than the first film.  While Chest lacks the absurd humor and overall charm of Black Pearl, it more than makes up for that in its solid action scenes and more cohesive story.

Rather surprisingly, I couldn't help but think Johnny Depp's kooky Jack Sparrow got pushed a bit to the wayside in this one with Orlando Bloom taking on more of a leading role with his character of Will Turner finding himself fighting to free his father (Stellan Skarsgård) from a life of indentured servitude at the hands (or, more fittingly, claws) of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), a half-man, half-tentacled sea creature.  That said, Sparrow certainly plays a key role in a film that pits nearly all of its main characters -- Jack, Will and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), and Davy Jones -- against one another in a quest to gain their respective freedoms (of which I'm not going to discuss seeing as how nearly everyone in the world other than me had seen this flick given that it's the fourth highest grossing film of all time).

For someone that didn't particularly like when the first film placed its focus on Will and Elizabeth, I greatly appreciated that Dead Man's Chest gave everyone a solid storyline instead of just Jack Sparrow.  If you're going to have three main characters, it's best to give all three something to do and this flick does that a lot better than Black Pearl. It also helps this film immensely that the action sequences are a bit better staged and we don't need the background set-up that is always present in the first movies of any series.  Granted, I can't help but think that director Gore Verbinski could have edited things down a bit (I didn't really need to see three Kraken attacks...two would have sufficed), but overall, this is a solid action film that fares a bit better than its predecessor.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Gore Verbinski

There's nothing wrong per se with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but I can't help but feel that it lacks the fun and excitement of my favorite action-adventure films (like the Indiana Jones series or Romancing the Stone).  Sure, Johnny Depp created quite an iconic character in his Oscar-nominated constantly nonsensical Jack Sparrow.  His character and performance is certainly fun to watch, but the film feels interminably long at moments.  There's no need for this affair to go on for 135 minutes (which makes me wonder how the heck I'm going to make it through installments two and three which are even longer...yes, I've never seen them).

Unfortunately, it just feels like there's not a cohesive storyline throughout.  Sure, there's the overarching tale about Sparrow attempting to seek revenge against Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), a pirate who several years ago mutinously abandoned Sparrow on a deserted island taking Sparrow's ship and crew under his control. That alone would have been enough (and would have proven to be successful), but throwing in the wooden and dull star-crossed lovers Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) just bog down the proceedings.  I just couldn't get myself to care about either of these two young lovebirds and that's what hurts the film when compared to the mystical, magical, adventurous storyline revolving around Sparrow and Barbossa.

In the end, I'm probably sounding a bit harsher than I'd like.  The film is certainly amusing and a solid summer action picture.  It's just that with a little more trimming, it could have been a real classic.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-