Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
Keira Knightley
Jack Davenport
Bill Nighy
Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Gore Verbinski

More exciting and action packed than Superman Returns; more entertaining than X-Men 3! Director Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest delivers the goods in a two-and-a-half-hour sequel that could possibly outgun the other big-budget summer celluloid releases.

The movie begins with Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) sitting forlorn in the rain at her wedding-to-be while Tories overtake the island and arrest her fiancé Will (Orlando Bloom). They are both accused of assisting in the escape of Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and are to be taken to the gallows. Will is given a chance (or so he thinks) to save Elizabeth and himself if he will only help to track down Jack and obtain his wacky compass that doesn’t point north, but to where the heart desires. We finally find out just where Jack procured that strange and magical object.

Jack is first imprisoned, escapes and then is at sea when he meets the ghost of his old friend, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgârd) who is Will’s father. Bootstrap tells Jack that Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) has sent him to claim his due and will send the Leviathan to collect. This isn’t necessarily the Leviathan of the Bible. It’s the Kraken from mythology and lore, a giant squid large enough to destroy a ship and still have room for a longboat for dessert. Jack takes to land, only to be taken in by a tribe of cannibals and treated as a god while his crew is taken prisoner. Will’s trek leads him to Jack as the cannibals are preparing to release their god from his human avatar shell.

I don’t want to give away the entire film, but we’ll just say that eventually, in the search for Davy Jones’ locker all three primary characters are set upon individual journeys providing for an interesting approach so as to not make the entire film a “buddy flick.” Each character has to fight some of their own battles and hold their own for a short while before being reunited. Personally I don’t think Knightley got as much screen time or action as the others, but she does play the pivotal role that leads to the third film.

Speaking of reunited, there are a few familiar faces from the first film, including good guys who are now bad guys; bad guys who are now on the good guys side even if the good guys are still pirates - which makes them bad guys; some bad guys who are still bad guys. The newer characters are good guys who are really bad guys and the really, really bad guys, Davy Jones and crew, are just plain nasty, tortured souls sailing upon The Flying Dutchman. [Keith Richards was due to be in the new film but his recording sessions with the Rolling Stones prevented that. He is scheduled to appear as Capt. Jack’s father in the third film.]

The comedy and action are non-stop and some of the swordplay and stunts outdo the first film. Along with some of these stunts, including a mill wheel, come some interesting camera angles to add fuel to the action and to counter the gorgeous establishing nature shots of the islands in other scenes. Rick Baker’s make-up and the CGI FX are extremely well done. One would think that Nighy actually had the anatomy of an octopus to hide his human features. Part of his hidden humanity becomes even more apparent as scenes taken from The Phantom of the Opera haunt the screen, including one of the coolest pipe organs ever designed.

Many of you have probably seen the previews and are aware that the Kraken appears in the film. Unlike most movies that show the “creature” for mere seconds in one scene, the gargantuan cephalopod gets a fair amount of screen time and Capt. Jack pulls a stunt that one of my fellow gamers pulled a dozen years ago in a D&D adventure.

It’s not necessary to know anything about pirates, Davy Jones or The Flying Dutchman, but a little knowledge of the history makes for a nice bit of insight into some of the visuals. One of these insightful scenes would be when the Dead Man’s Chest (whose name has more than one meaning) is found and the contents within are revealed.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was shot back-to-back with the third film, which is due out next summer. The second film ends with you ready to see the third or at least wanting the theater to run the film back and play it all again. As with the first film, stay through the thousands of credits to the very end because there’s a final scene that’s twisted and entertaining.

4.5/5.0

Ethan Nahté website

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