Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Jordan, Amberly, Naomi

Now things start to get bigger and unfortunately, much more confusing. I actually like that about this film but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Actually this is my favourite film of the series (at the moment, still have to wait a day to see the new one).

Filmed concurrently with the third, this must have been a huge undertaking. It's immense and intricate. The open the world up with this film, with great deal more shot on exotic distant locations.

This has the best action of them all with the cannibal island cages and Jack's shish-kebab escape attempt in the first half and the dizzying in more ways than one three-way wheel sword fight/treasure chest race with about 5 different objectives from 7 different parties all colliding at once. I've said it before, that entire last sequence is one of my all time favourite actions sequences, it's sheer delight.

I was originally surprised at how many returning characters are in the next two films, seemingly minor parts from the first film that are fleshed out and given more to do. My favourite is Jack Davenport who's character, the former Commodore Norrington has taken a huge dive after the evens of film one and greatly changed him, for the better in my opinion.

This film also serves as the introduction of Davey Jones the most brilliantly realised creation from ILM probably ever. Their Transformers look damn impressive too, but they don't get out a performance like Jones, tanks in large part to the great Bill Nighy. The lighting, rendering and compositing is gob-smackingly astonishing that most people think they are looking at some kind of make-up. And the wonderful Crash McCreery fills out the rest of his crew with such imaginative characters that you're always looking at them in the background and picking up new and bizarre details.

The biggest problem with this film is that it's a bit all over the map in terms of how many characters and plots it's juggling. It allows for some very amusing scenes, like that final battle, but for the most part it feels a little convoluted and without a strong central drive to pull the story through.

Still, I find it a lot more fun than the other two. It has a great cliffhanger ending. Oh and I love me some Kracken action.