Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -- 2006 -- PG-13

I'm finally trying to catch up on some backlogged reviews here. I watched this one last month, and instead of putting it first, I've been writing up stuff on whatever I'd just seen. A review for this one has been deleted probably 2 or 3 times now, which makes for a discouraging attempt to review anything.

Anyway, this sequel to the Curse of the Black Pearl makes a nice little follow up to the previous film that uses the final events against the characters as the wedding of Will and Elizabeth is interrupted by charges of conspiracy against the crown for letting the notorious Jack Sparrow escape. Will's only hope of getting out of this is retrieving an item from Jack: his compass that pointed to the Isla de Muerta. Naturally, Will points out that getting this item is silly since the treasure on the island is cursed, but it turns out the compass has a greater purpose.

In tracking down Jack, Will finds him trapped on an island of natives as their ruler with his crew all locked up in cages. Jack is hiding because he doesn't want to fall victim to the Kraken of Davy Jones, a guy to whom Jack owes a debt of his life. Once off that little island, Jack tells Will that he is on a quest of his own: he wants to find a key to a chest, but the key is in the possession of this Davy Jones guy. He now wants Will to help him get this key.

Fast forward to Will being sent over to Davy Jones' ship after this key thing. Davy Jones' ship turns out to be this weird vessel of fish-men. They claim to be men who have sold themselves into 100 years of servitude to Davy Jones for something he gave them in life. Jack apparently cut a deal with Davy Jones to get 100 souls to replace his own, and Will fell into that bargain. As for the fish-men, I can understand they way some of them look, but does being on an underwater boat really turn you into a fish?

It goes on from there to get ahold of the title Dead Man's Chest and all that comes out of locating, taking, and losing the chest and/or contents as it relates to the big picture. The film ends on a cliffhanger, but in a big budget film way so we're satisfied that we contributed our part to making this half a story.

This whole film is the first part to a two part set to round out a trilogy of Pirate films, so a lot of plot threads go unresolved and the film turns out to be 60% setup to what will follow in this year's conclusion.

There were only a few new characters heere, so everyone that carried over from the last film benefited from familiarity to us allowing the film to take right off from the beginning without letting up. There were tons of madcap adventures lending laughs and some thrills as it carried on. It gets very, very plot heavy the further you get into it, and given that it's 2 1/2 hours long, it manages to maintain interest by throwing yet more plot at us...and even more plot. Add in the swashbuckling stuff, lots of humor, and a few sword fights with accessories and ta-da, there you have it.

I will say it's very refreshing to find a film that uses the world and characters and places them all in an entirely new story instead of rehashing the original plot. That makes for a very good sequel to begin with. On another note, it's also nice that they didn't use a number in the title. Sometimes, you need a number, but I find that sequels are somehow better if there is no number there. Don't know why.

So the film's a lot of fun to watch and get lost in. Though it is very thick on the plot and doesn't fully resolve, there are enough reversals, laughs, and surprises to keep you glued as it runs through. It won't stand well without it's introductory part or it's following conclusion, but for what it is, it's definitely an above average film.