Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest
(2.5 of 5 stars)

“Dead Man’s Chest” is not unlike a hundred other summer blockbuster sequels. The story goes something like this: the director and producer sit down and say “gee, we had so much fun making the last film, that maybe we should make another!” (Or was it “Gee, we made so much freakin’ money on the last film…?” — I can’t keep track.) As is too often the case, however, these “well, why not make another?” sequels only stretch out the life of the first film, without adding anything new. Such is the case with “Dead Man’s Chest.”

The film opens with our beloved William Turner and Elizabeth Swann arrested for crimes against the crown–aiding in the escape of an enemy of the crown– by a power-hungry East India Company usurper. In order to gain their freedom, William must locate the infamous “Captain” Jack Sparrow and return his broken compass to the usurper. Thinking only of his “true love,” William sets off in search of Sparrow.

Sparrow, meanwhile, is off on a search of his own, guided by his broken compass and a drawing of a key. Oblique references are made to curse and a debt– it seems, somehow, that our beloved Captain has become indebted to the old man of the sea– Davy Jones.

Every element that made “Curse of the Black Pearl” the smash hit it was is present in “Dead Man’s Chest”– the improbable, disorientated and dreadlocked captain, the attractive if sometimes petulant Commodore’s daughter, the over-the-top swashbuckling swordfights, etc. Everything– except for the freshness and originality.

Before the negative stuff, let me not that Davy Jones and his crew of men-turned-sea creatures are a veritable treat. According to the legend, a conscript in Davy Jones’ crew is guaranteed a hundred years of life, during which time one gradually transforms from human to creature of the sea. Gore Verbinski’s anthropomorphisms of man and sea creature are detailed, varied and impressively lifelike– rendered such that they fit easily within the flow of the story, without obviously or obtrusively being computer animated.

That, unfortunately, is where my praises of “Dead Man’s Chest” end. By the end of the two-and-a-half hour odyssey, the film felt stretched thin and canned. The humor was intermittent, and relied almost exclusively on gags and set-ups from the first film (lines such as “But why is the rum always gone?” or the pirate with the fake eye, scrounging around on deck for it). The witty, verbose exchanges that helped keep the first entertaining for those over the age of 12 are also present in the second– but too many, and often feel forced rather than clever.

In fact, even the set of characters is rather unvaried from the original. We get a new, if somewhat bland East India Company man, and Davey Jones and his crew of sea-creatures replace Barbossa and his crew of the damned, but the cast is otherwise unchanged– Swann, Turner, Sparrow, Sparrow’s crew, Norrington, etc. Unfortunately, the characters themselves are also unable to break out of their shallow and clichéd roles– honor-bound Turner, unscrupulous and goofy Jack, power-hungry Norrington, and so on.

While “Dead Man’s Chest” is not without its amusing or clever moments, overall it feels much too like sequels often do– a plot-less extension (though there is a plot, it’s rather vague and inane) of the same characters, gags and devices. It will be interesting to see how the third of the trilogy–“At World’s End” turns out when it releases next summer because, frankly, “Dead Man’s Chest” feels like it thoroughly killed everything great about the series.