Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow larger-than-life image was the precise reason those who had watched POTC-I would come to see this sequel. Once again, he doesn't fail to disappoint with his courage-in-the-face-of-death, comical, intentional, blunderbuss, etc. etc. Johnny Depp style of acting. He's been reported to say that he bears a real-life resemblance to this Pirate image that catapulted him from a non-entity to one of Hollywood's highest paid star. Even one of his sons is named Jack.

10m.jpg



This movie too had its Johnny Depp moments, the screen arrival for instance. While POTC-I had that classic shot of a tobacco-chewing, wide-eyed, hairy Pirate wading in through a raft (it was an absolutely enthralling scene), POTC-II had Jack Sparrow emerge after shooting dead a preying bird, from a coffin of all places. No wonder it was met with a thunderous applause. Likewise the innocent manner in which he proposes "marr-ee-yaj" to Elizabeth. Sadly, the expectations were just higher from second version, Depp couldn't deliver it total. Unlike POTC-I where you savor every single moment in delight, of this enigmatic Pirate, POTC-II had its moments of mediocrity, e.g. Jack Sparrow's verbal tussles with Davy Jones was a far cry from the brilliant chemistry with arch-rival Barbossa, in POTC-I.

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth has done even better than the earlier version, and is highly watchable because of her timing. That scene in which she dresses as a male crew, and walks up to Captain Jack, had a dynamic energy about it. She's done a marvelous job.

Orlando Bloom can't act well. But, he tries to compensate by playing mute in important scenes. However, his chemistry with his long-lost father, Bootstrap Bill, was done nicely.

Davey Jones, the Kraken, and all slimy crew members of the Flying Dutchman make the rest of the story, but fact-of-the-matter is, unlike POTC-I there is nothing called a story this time. Even if they wanted a third version, the story could have been better. We had repeat scenes of the Kraken preying on different ships. That was jading, and could have been avoided. The overall length of this movie was half an hour more than what could have been tolerated. The most distressing scene was where Wil Turner duels with Com. Norrington on a roller coaster. It was painfully long.

Comm.Norrington and Tia Dalma, the witch are very out-of-place characters in this movie. Norrington played a disciplined British naval officer in the earlier version, and he had willfully conceded Elizabeth to Turner. Now, again he comes out from nowhere, and is an additional "spoke" on the wheel. Tia Dalma's accent is too long and convoluted, and another unnecessary character.

Overall, the film was a dampener except for positive points mentioned above. If it wasn't for Barbossa's last minute surprise entry, the ending would have been a disappointment.

Hope the 3rd concluding part takes the best of I and II and avoids the worse of II to endear POTC fans ones again.

Source - http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10240554/comments
 
Top