Rating of
2.5/4
"POTC: Dead Man's Chest" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/19/12
Blockbuster sequels are ALL guilty of the same cinematic crimes. They are completely self referential and rarely bring anything new to the original idea. They're too long. The scripts are totally episodic and have far more interest in ever escalating set pieces than the story or characters. They rely far too much on CGI. And so it is with Dead Man's Chest. I personally thought the supernatural element was the weakest aspect of the original film and would have preferred to see a straight swashbuckling adventure with more of Captain Jack's dubious morality and witty dialogue at the centre. But that would've taken screen time away from the expensive CGI, wouldn't it...? Tsk tsk. In fact much of this film reminded me of a Pixar cartoon, with much of the same kind of humour and sight gags; Jack even reminded me of a Tom & Jerry cartoon as he tippy-toed up to situations, pulled a face, and ran away again. Time after time. My gripes are mainly aimed at it's inferiority to the original, and taken as a film in it's own right, it actually isn't bad at all. It's nice to see Keira get to do some swashbuckling of her own and Norrington has instantly gone from peripheral nobody to the second most interesting character in the story. It's amusing in a forgettable, popcorn kind of way, although the "ending" did seem like a sly way to press gang the audience into watching yet another sequel. It kind of worked, but I can't see myself wanting to rewatch this one in the near future.
