Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
By stephanie - Monday, July 10th, 2006
It’s not quite sci-fi, but enough elements of fantasy prop it up to make me feel that the second installment of Pirates of the Caribbean is worthy of a review here. The film is already a huge success, and has beaten Spider-Man 2 for the biggest opening-weekend record at $132 million. (In contrast, Superman Returns, suprisingly, has made $141.6 million over an entire two weeks; certainly nothing to sneeze at, but proving that just because you put on a superhero costume doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to be the box office winner.)
Pirates of the Caribbean has to be one of my favorite fun box office franchises since Indiana Jones. It has several elements going for it: a fantastic cast, top-notch special effects, and of course, PIRATES!
Now, I’ve read some mixed reviews by certain professional film critics, who criticized Dead Man’s Chest for a variety of things, including having too many special effects and that it’s just not as “fresh” as the first one. Of course the newness has worn off in this second installment – there’s no other way around it. But Dead Man’s Chest is every bit as fun as the first, even if it suffers from not being so “new.” You just have to get in touch with your inner kid, that’s all.
In Dead Man’s Chest, Captain Jack Sparrow is on the run from Davy Jones, who is the squid-faced ghost pirate at the helm of the mythological ship The Flying Dutchman. Weaved in around this basic premise are a variety of subplots that finally come together in a satisfying, if sometimes, silly way.
It’s the silliness that I enjoyed the most in Dead Man’s Chest, though I suspect that others might point their nose up at such things, expecting more “realistic” swashbuckling. Some of the scenes were unbelievable and yet, you couldn’t help but have fun. Men fighting on top of a water wheel that has broken loose, Jack Sparrow doing a spectacular pole vault, a group of men swinging over a gorge in a cage made of bones: These are creative, fun, juicy ideas, perfectly executed, that completely fit the bill.
Davy Jones, with his tentacled “beard” and fishy crew, is one of the most brilliant CGI creations of all time. One of the biggest problems of CGI has been that somehow, CGI creatures haven’t felt as if they had real weight and mass. Davy Jones, however, feels real. He looks like you could touch him. He’s disgusting, yet mesmerizing.
In fact, the visual effects and design are some of the best parts of the film. The Flying Dutchman appears to be an organic mass made out of barnacles and bones. The crew consists of dead sailors who are now being eaten up by the sea, and have become half man, half crustacean. While not all have the same impact of Davy Jones (I felt the hammer head shark man was particularly weak), overall, the effect is just beyond creepy…in a good way.
The main characters continue to be strong, and Jack Sparrow is as entertaining as always. I have a minor nitpick in that the dialogue didn’t seem as clever as in the first, but it would be hard to get disappointed over that with so much other fun stuff going on.
We’re also taken to a new location, a creepy swamp filled with fireflies and crickets that looks and sounds a lot like the introduction to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. (I was half expecting to see a Disney restaurant peeking out over the water.) It’s a wonderful, atmospheric addition and will be a special treat for anyone who remembers that part of the ride.
Overall, I thought Dead Man’s Chest was a blast, and the kids around me seemed to think so too. (I went to see the matinee.) My favorite part? The 8-year-old girl sitting next to me exclaiming, upon the surprise re-appearance of The Flying Dutchman:
“Ooooh SNAP!”
July 11th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
I loved it, I thought it better than the first one. More physical comedy, amazing special effects and a lot of fun!