Year: 2006Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Box Office Gross: $423,032,628
Awards: Oscar and BAFTA (Best Achievement in Visual Effects), People's Choice, Teen Choice,
Actors: Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly, Orlando Bloom, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Bill Nighy, Stellan Starsgaard, Tom Hollander
In the second week of this feature I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the highest grossing film (in the U.S. - clarification that I'm only using U.S. highest grossing, rather than global gross). I loved the first in this series, Curse of the Black Pearl, and was really excited for both the second and third installments. However, rewatching Dead Man's Chest was a little disappointing. It's just not as much fun as the first one. We meet up with our main characters as Knightly's wedding to Bloom is destroyed and they are arrested for trying to help Depp's iconic Jack Sparrow (sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow) escape from prison. In exchange for their freedom they have to track Jack down and retrieve the compass he carries and bring it back to the Dutch East India Company who are trying to rid the seas of pirates. They find Jack, but he's trying to remove a curse put on him by Davey Jones (Nighy). He's trying to find Davey Jones' heart. This involves looking for a key to unlock the chest that holds it, then finding the chest. Meanwhile Davey Jones is trying to kill Jack with the Kraken (a mythical octopus type sea creature that can destroy ships). They chase around for quite a while and ultimately we find out Jack has been sent to hell of a sort by jumping into the mouth of the Kraken to save the other ships. The rest of them mourn his loss with the crazy sorceress lady in the marshes. And in the last seconds Captain Barbossa returns and they all swear to get Jack back At World's End. There's also a subplot where Bloom is trying to free his father, Bootstrap Bill (Skarsgaard) from servitude to Davey Jones. Confusing and distracting for most of it, but building up for the final film. There was just too much set up in this film and not enough humor and careful plot direction. I liked it, and expect it grossed the most in 2006 because the first film was so good, and this continued the characters in a respectable, if not superior, way. Definitely didn't hold up to the high standard the first one did upon rewatching.
3 comments:
I was on holiday in San Francisco, and we definitely had to take time out of being tourists to catch this one. My mom and cousin loved it, but I was truly underwhelmed.
It all felt so empty. I knew the third one would probably be a disappointment for me as well, and I was right. I missed the beautiful simplicity of the first.
The sequels just sank under their own weight of complex plots, overdone special effects and never-ending action sequences.
Rachel, I was really disappointed viewing it again. I would have sworn it was a great movie, now I'm nervous to watch the third one again. I don't like being disillusioned! They really didn't work under the complexity of their stories, you're right.
I don't remember being that disappointed, but maybe I need to watch it again. Maybe I was just too excited about it coming out!
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