Recently Seen: Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (2006)
This first of two sequels to the megahit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl is a very, very strange creature. As strange as the creatures that man Davy Jones's Flying Dutchman, and the multi-tentacled sea-monster that wreaks havoc at the end of the movie.
The first Pirates movie was a rollicking adventure, with innovative special effects and an iconic anti-hero in Captain Jack Sparrow (Johny Depp). This follow-up appears to have amplified everything ten-fold: the music, sets, special effects, locations, monsters, creatures, action sequences. And despite all the visible effort, it is around one tenth as much fun as the original. Everyone seemed to be trying too hard and everything came across as much too effortful.
The entire episode with Jack Sparrow as the "king of the savages" was unwatchable to me. It dragged, was predictable and felt like something that could have been heavily edited and we would have all been the happier for it.
And then there was the interminable island scene with the three-way fight for the key to Dead Man's Chest, leading to the wheel sequence and Davy Jones's men chasing after Elizabeth in the jungle. It should have been heart-thumping, but I was left strangely unmoved and just wanted them to get on with it.
Davy Jones and Flying Dutchman crew are no doubt magnificent achievements in special effects and make-up, but does anyone really want to watch 90 minutes of THAT? All those boils and sores, and the rotting flesh and slimy tentacles - had they had less money in the budget, would we have had a movie less likely to induce mass loss of appetite?
Even Jack Sparrow seems less fun and not quite as outrageous this time around. He is also quite unlikeable in this movie, which is a major problem. He is not meant to be heroic and he is certainly petty, mercurial, selfish and all manner of non-indefensible traits, but in the first movie, there was always a vulnerability about him that made him sympathetic. In this sequel, I did not care if he survived. Not Depp's fault; he played the character he was given to play. It was the writing that served him most poorly.
As for the rest of them; despite Depp's scoring an Oscar nomination for The Black Pearl, this is hardly the sort of movie that brings out award-worthy performances. Orlando Bloom gets a story line involving his long lost father and with that, an opportunity to emote. He has improved as an actor since his days gracing the LOTR trilogy with his outstanding prettiness, but he is not quite an Ian McKellan yet. I was moved by the father-son sub-plot but mainly because Jonathan Pryce, who played Will's father, was tremendously affecting despite the layers of make-up. Keira Knightley fares about as well as Bloom does. She gets to play the cliched 18th century proto-feminist, who dons men's clothes, wields a gun and fights off the baddies with not one but two swords. It's not much of a role, really and she does not very much with it. (Oh, and I really could have done without seeing Knightley kissing Depp - a tremendous lack of chemistry even given the context of the scene).
The supporting actor that really caught the eye was Jack Davenport, reprising his role the former Captain Norrington, now just plain old Norrington, dispossessed of wealth and status. He makes a wonderful down and out villain. From a purely shallow perspective, Davenport also really suits the scruffy, unkempt appearance of a pirate - much more so than the more conventionally pretty Bloom.
All in all, this was a bit of a damp squib. It certainly does not leave me craving the final installment. Although, I suppose I would watch that just to see Chow Yun Fatt and Hollywood's recreation of Singapore.
Rating: 5 out of 10
The first Pirates movie was a rollicking adventure, with innovative special effects and an iconic anti-hero in Captain Jack Sparrow (Johny Depp). This follow-up appears to have amplified everything ten-fold: the music, sets, special effects, locations, monsters, creatures, action sequences. And despite all the visible effort, it is around one tenth as much fun as the original. Everyone seemed to be trying too hard and everything came across as much too effortful.
The entire episode with Jack Sparrow as the "king of the savages" was unwatchable to me. It dragged, was predictable and felt like something that could have been heavily edited and we would have all been the happier for it.
And then there was the interminable island scene with the three-way fight for the key to Dead Man's Chest, leading to the wheel sequence and Davy Jones's men chasing after Elizabeth in the jungle. It should have been heart-thumping, but I was left strangely unmoved and just wanted them to get on with it.
Davy Jones and Flying Dutchman crew are no doubt magnificent achievements in special effects and make-up, but does anyone really want to watch 90 minutes of THAT? All those boils and sores, and the rotting flesh and slimy tentacles - had they had less money in the budget, would we have had a movie less likely to induce mass loss of appetite?
Even Jack Sparrow seems less fun and not quite as outrageous this time around. He is also quite unlikeable in this movie, which is a major problem. He is not meant to be heroic and he is certainly petty, mercurial, selfish and all manner of non-indefensible traits, but in the first movie, there was always a vulnerability about him that made him sympathetic. In this sequel, I did not care if he survived. Not Depp's fault; he played the character he was given to play. It was the writing that served him most poorly.
As for the rest of them; despite Depp's scoring an Oscar nomination for The Black Pearl, this is hardly the sort of movie that brings out award-worthy performances. Orlando Bloom gets a story line involving his long lost father and with that, an opportunity to emote. He has improved as an actor since his days gracing the LOTR trilogy with his outstanding prettiness, but he is not quite an Ian McKellan yet. I was moved by the father-son sub-plot but mainly because Jonathan Pryce, who played Will's father, was tremendously affecting despite the layers of make-up. Keira Knightley fares about as well as Bloom does. She gets to play the cliched 18th century proto-feminist, who dons men's clothes, wields a gun and fights off the baddies with not one but two swords. It's not much of a role, really and she does not very much with it. (Oh, and I really could have done without seeing Knightley kissing Depp - a tremendous lack of chemistry even given the context of the scene).
The supporting actor that really caught the eye was Jack Davenport, reprising his role the former Captain Norrington, now just plain old Norrington, dispossessed of wealth and status. He makes a wonderful down and out villain. From a purely shallow perspective, Davenport also really suits the scruffy, unkempt appearance of a pirate - much more so than the more conventionally pretty Bloom.
All in all, this was a bit of a damp squib. It certainly does not leave me craving the final installment. Although, I suppose I would watch that just to see Chow Yun Fatt and Hollywood's recreation of Singapore.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Labels: Movie Reviews
posted by gentleice the deptfordian at 5:54 PM
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