Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

There was a time when the Pirate genre spelled box office poison. Now it’s the financial savior of the mainstream movie industry. More Americans saw this sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl within its first ten days than any other film so far this year. This is mostly due to the phenomenal surprise success of the first film, which jettisoned indie jewel Johnny Depp into the mainstream. His vibrantly inebriated performance as Captain Jack Sparrow was a daring comic move that initially scared Disney producers, and ended up artistically elevating what was otherwise an efficient yet disposable action blockbuster. Scoring with an Oscar nomination and tremendous acclaim from the movie-going public, Depp is perhaps the only reason why there is a Pirates franchise at all. He’s always been an unpredictable chameleon; disappearing into a variety of personalities, taking enormous gambles, and refusing to play the same roll twice…until now.

Curse of the Black Pearl was fine entertainment, but Disney just doesn’t know when to stop. These films are, after all, inspired by their Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyworld, and the plot they have built around it is of very little substance. It’s all really just an excuse for a series of elaborate action sequences, which are always fun for a while, but eventually grow tiresome. Black Pearl was too long, and this one even more so, together totaling a running time of just under five hours. The fact that there will be a culminating (?) third chapter out next year is nearly unthinkable. Depp’s foil consists of two romantic leads whose characters have predictably followed the Aladdin formula from square one (poor boy falls in love with rich girl, etc.).

The film opens with Keira Knightly devastated that her wedding to Orlando Bloom is delayed, since they have been arrested for aiding pirate Jack in the first film. Jack is being sought after by the tentacle-laden Davy Jones (Bill Nighy, having a marvelous time channeling Jabba the Hutt), who can play a pipe organ with his face, thanks to his CGI composition. And as in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Bloom reunites with his long-lost pillaging father, Bootstrap Bill (a touching Stellan Skarsgard). Both Bloom and Knightly are adequate enough, but still can’t generate much interest for their transcendently dull characters. Depp is as amusing as ever, with his effeminate tics and deadpan quips, yet even his portrayal is more of a stunt than a performance.

Director Gore Verbinski has proved to be a versatile filmmaker with his unnerving remake of Ringu and his superb character drama The Weatherman, yet his direction here seems more workmanlike than inspired. The art direction and creature effects are superbly detailed yet tremendously ugly – the film barely justifies its PG-13 rating, and seems totally detached from the luminous new Disney logo that precedes it. Following the Back to the Future formula, Verbinski follows his smash hit with the first of two sequels, made back-to-back to justify its status as a trilogy. This results in a predictably unsatisfying conclusion for its middle chapter, although the cliffhanger “twist” that ends Dead Man’s Chest feels more like a desperate cop-out. As in the first film (with its opening Rube Goldberg-like swordfight within a blacksmith shop), the best moments in Pirates 2 involve ingeniously constructed action sequences that are imaginative and hilarious on their own terms.

Again, the greatest stuff occurs earliest, when an escape from a cannibalistic tribe leaves Bloom spinning down a hill in a circular cage, and Depp looking like a walking shish kebab. Other action highlights include numerous battles with a towering octopus-like “beastie”, and a dizzying swordfight within a speeding well wheel, sending characters fighting and flailing like a trio of rogue hampsters. There are stretches of terrific entertainment within this bloated enterprise, yet it just doesn’t have the depth to justify its overlong, overcooked running time. Does the box office phenomenon of Pirates prove that most audiences crave familiarity over originality? Or does their love of Depp’s audacity disprove the preceding theory?

Regardless of the answer, Depp should see Captain Jack Sparrow as a triumph of his stubborn unconventionality proving the timid mainstream wrong. He should just be careful not let his own originality transform into time-worn convention, which a never-ending series of Pirates movies will no doubt allow. After a success, there’s always the temptation to replicate it, much like repeatedly using the same well of inspiration, thinking it’s the fountain of youth. Please, Depp, don’t make the same error as Shyamalan, and mistake a dry patch in your well for a lady in the water.

Rating: **1/2 (out of *****)