Dead Man's Bloat

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (3/5 stars)

The familiar characters return for another adventure. This time around, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are brought up on charges for helping Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) escape at the end of the last movie. The British official who shows up with the charges offers Will a deal, however. If he will retrieve Captain Jack's compass, they will all be pardoned. The secret of this compass is that it not only can it lead people to the secret hideout from the first movie, it can also lead to a special chest which contains monster pirate Davy Jones' chest, which can allow one to either defeat him or use it as leverage against him to have power over the open seas. Will sets off first while Elizabeth remains in prison, and eventually she breaks out and sets off on her own adventure.

The movie goes through a number of different locations, first from Will meeting up with Captain Jack at an island inhabited by cannibals, to their later encouter with Davy Jones, Will's capture and the Black Pearl's escape, Elizabeth's stowaway aboard an honest merchant ship which eventually leads her to meet up with Captain Jack and the Pearl on a pirate island, and the eventual climax at the location of the Dead Man's Chest at some uncharted island.

I liked the first movie a lot for what it is (4, maybe 4.5 stars), and maybe that is why I was so disappointed with this movie. The first 45 minutes could have easily almost entirely been cut out, the entire portion where they travel to the cannibal island is completely unnecessary. Not only that, but this section of the movie is rather dull and boring. The action scenes don't fit with the story, the humor is flat, the witty dialogue and interaction among the characters from the first movie is practically non-existant. It is only later, once the characters meet up with Davy Jones and the real story begins, that the movie picks up the pace and the quality of the action scenes and the writing improve. The second two thirds (the movie runs about 2.5 hours) are quite a bit of fun actually, especially the last hour or so.

This is one thing that is sometimes disappointing with sequels, the creators tend to go too overboard. While the cannibal island scenes provided the movie with a little added action scenes, there is plenty enough in the rest of the movie and boring me out of my mind for 45 minutes before the movie really begins in earnest is not the best way to win me over. Please, movie makers, pay more attention to editing and writing, even in popcorn action movies. It makes all the difference in the world.

I'm sounding a little harsh here, and I guess that is because of high expectations. However I did give the movie 3/5 stars, which means "average" on my scale, because the later good parts of the movie make up for the terrible first parts. My personal suggestion to anyone who watches this would be this: you already have my summary of how the plot is set up from above, walk in about 45 minutes in and pick up the movie from there and you won't have missed very much. You'll probably find it a lot of fun. Infact, I may have a differing opinion on this, as the audience I saw the movie with seemed to enjoy the movie a lot and clapped at the end (there is a cliffhanger ending and a particularly enjoyable shocker in the final shot). I'm wondering if this was because they actually enjoyed the entire movie or the later parts of the movie were fresher in their memories. I'm reminded of a scene from Adaptation here, where Charlie Kaufman is talking to the teacher at the screenwriting seminar he attends. He tells Charlie that it doesn't really matter what happens in the beginning and middle of your movie, as long as you wow them at the end. Maybe that is what got the audience.