If I had to sum up Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man?s Chest in a single phrase, it would be ?action overload.? It gives us plenty of Johnny Depp?s iconic Jack Sparrow, and Keira Knightley?s Elizabeth Swann a sword (though first she has to be rescued ? yay Hollywood non-feminism), and Orlando Bloom?s Will Turner more opportunities to act faultlessly heroic; brings back those two bumbling pirates; adds Bill Nighy as a memorable tentacle-faced, organ (as in the instrument)-pounding villain; and includes plenty of swashbuckling, redcoats, double-crosses, voodoo magic, savage natives, and even a kraken.
But as you might gather from that list, it gets to be a bit much at times.
It?s all undeniably exciting and inventive, and it?s difficult to imagine fans of the original being disappointed, but (especially near the beginning and in parts of the last third) it keeps ratcheting up the stakes so much that it becomes hard to care anymore.
Consider an early scene where Will and company are tied up by the aforementioned natives in two nets inside a deep chasm over some jagged rocks. Too conventional? Let?s say the nets are made out of their former comrade?s bones, and Jack?s the next meal the natives are planning to cook. Still not enough? How about the folks in Will?s net are loyal to Jack, while the folks in the other net plan to cause a mutiny? So Will and company have to escape from the natives and from each other, and save Jack in the process.
I should probably note this early sequence has nothing to do with anything that comes later. The natives are funny, and in an interesting piece of equal-opportunity decision-making, a multiethnic group of extras were all painted the same (dark) colour, but it?s a little too… much in the end, with the narrative unclear about who (besides Will and Jack), why, or what we should care about.
The story starts out with a bang: Will and Elizabeth are captured by the new governor of the first movie?s Port Royal (played by one Tom Hollander), a representative of the East India company. He immediately arrests Will and Elizabeth for aiding Jack Sparrow and ousts Elizabeth?s father from his former position. However, it turns out Jack stole a magic compass from him, and since he wants the compass back he agrees to set Will free to go find it ? otherwise Elizabeth will hang from the gallows. Fast forward past that pointless natives pileup, the monkey from the first movie, and some voodoo magic, and the movie picks up again when Nighy (or at least, a squid-like creature that sounds like Nighy putting on a Scottish accent)?s villainous Davy Jones enters the picture. He wants to collect a payment from Jack ? his soul ? and Jack is only willing to give Will the compass if he helps Jack bargain for his soul.
Like the original, Dead Man?s Chest is long and unwieldy, but it?s (mostly) carried along by a sure-footed story and an infectious sense of fun. A refresher in the original will be necessary for those who remember little more than Johnny Depp, and that Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley were in it but that their characters were boring. In addition to those three, plus Hollander, Nighy, and the two bumbling pirates, Pintel and Ragetti (Lee Arenberg and the British version of The Office?s Mackenzie Crook), there?s Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) whom I had completely forgotten about but whom my brother said played a major role in the first one and has an equally large role in this one, ?Bootstrap Bill? Turner, Will?s father, mentioned plenty in the first one and played here by Stellan Skarsg?rd, Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), the voodoo lady, Gibbs (Kevin McNally), Jack?s right hand man, and a couple of other crewmembers I hadn?t remembered, including a silent man with a parrot. The only character who doesn?t show up is the one obscure castmember I remembered, Anamaria (Zoe Saldana), who kept slapping Jack?s face in the first one.
The film is undeniably entertaining. There?s lots of little touches, like Jones using his face tentacles to play the organ and Pintel and Ragetti arguing over whether ?kraken? is pronounced ?crake-in? or ?crack-in.? There?s a terrific scene where three combatants, faced with Jones? crew, have to keep passing two swords between each other. The special effects are outstanding, and believe me, you?ve never seen a giant squid attack like this one. And yet, at times it feels like that sense of fun is missing somehow, and as if more special effects are the only way director Gore Verbinski knows how to compensate. The very end of the movie balances not one, not two, but three final battles, before recovering its bearings and setting up for the sequel. There?s a weak stab at a love triangle, and not nearly as much for Captain Jack to do this time around.
The film is also gruesome. When posing as leader of the savages (don?t ask), Jack?s necklace isn?t merely decorated with bones, but severed fingers. An early scene has a raven plucking a man?s eye out. A clothed leg is used as an oar. Bootstrap Bill?s face has been eaten away by the sea, and closeups of the polyps growing on it, not to mention the kraken?s suction cups, were enough to make even the (mostly grown-up) audience I was seeing it with gag. Don?t be fooled by the new Walt Disney logo: several parts of this push the very upper boundaries of good taste and the PG-13 rating.
So, is it good? It certainly delivers what it promises: Jack Sparrow, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and what feels like every high seas situation your mind can dream of. But it doesn?t keep as tight a handle on its narrative, and at times it loses track of what made the first one unexpectedly work.
3.5*
