Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: July 7th, 2006
Distributor: Buena Vista
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hrs. 31 min.
Review by Dack

Starring:
Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
Keira Knightley
Naomie Harris
Bill Nighy
Geoffrey Rush
Stellan Skarsgard

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the surprise hit of summer 2003, was decided to become a trilogy with the amazing success in the box office it encountered. Now, exactly 2 years later, the second film is released. But does it stack up to the first movie?

When the first Pirates of the Caribbean came out, I could never understand how it picked up so much steam, then stayed in the theatres for months, and later became one of the highest grossing movies of all time . I thought it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either (On a previous website I reviewed movies for, I gave it a rating of 2.75/5). But nonetheless, it made pirates popular again, and rejuvenated the giant budget, big grossing movies. So going into Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, I didn't expect that it would be very good, because 99% of the time, sequels end up being worse then the original. I was wrong.

Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest takes most of the big problems I had with the first movie, and corrects them, however it does bring some problems of it's own to the table. Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continues the story of the first one right when it begins, and doesn't give any back story of the first, so if you haven't seen the first movie, you probably should go rent or buy the DVD, or you will be lost. It's hard to talk much about the story of the movie, because no matter what I said, it would ruin the first movie if you haven't seen it, which brings me to my biggest problem with pirates. Was it a real movie? It didn't really have a plot, it's like the whole movie was a set up for the third movie. You go in, you go out, and that's about it. I won't ruin the end, but there isn't a conclusion, it just ends, which is a real dirty trick on the audience, pretty much making you go see the third movie, which doesn't even come out for at least a year. But, once the third movie comes out, if it's a good movie and has a good conclusion, then the trilogy as a whole will be great, so that's why the problem I have with the movie, is only lowering the score half a star.

The best part of Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the fight scenes. There is a sword fight on a rolling detached water wheel, that was breathtaking, and I have no idea how they made it. And, the ship/cannon fights are done perfectly again in this movie, but there is only one that occurs, which is a letdown, because fights involving ships are what pirates are mostly known for. The best part of this movie, as the previous, is Johnny Depp as the wacky Captain Jack Sparrow. His antics keep the movie fresh, and I couldn't see how the movie could of even worked without him.

So overall, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is an enjoyable summer movie, and will eventually be a part in a trilogy that will become classic. If they would have made it more of a solid middle movie, like other blockbuster trilogies did with middle movies Matrix reloaded, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, this movie could have easily got a near perfect score, but instead, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer thought it better to make more money forcing people to see the 3rd movie in the series.


Final Rating: 3.5/5 Stars