The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 27 Days to go: 21
Movie #413: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
First of all, has anyone ever addressed the absurd length of each Pirates of the Caribbean movie? I didn’t mention it about the last one, because it’s so inventive and great, but it was still overlong. And Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is even longer. Why is this necessary? (It’s not.) Tell tighter stories, people.
Dead Man’s Chest isn’t quite the raucous party Curse of the Black Pearl was, but it does have its merits. For one, the rendering of the crew of the Flying Dutchman and captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) himself is spectacular. Half human, half (or more) sea life, the undead pirates are perfectly of the sea — watery and slimy, with tentacles and barnacles and coral and shells — and completely different from the undead pirates of the first film.Not only that but the Kracken (while disgusting and not at all representative of the mythical creature in Clash of the Titans) is some pretty impressive creature creation. Its demolition of the Black Pearl is incredible to behold, particularly on the big screen.
However, the film also has its drawbacks. As sequels generally seek to expand the universe of a film, so does Dead Man’s Chest expand on the universe of the first film. There are more players, more motivations, and there’s more going on. Unfortunately, all this “more” makes things somewhat hard to follow and overly complex. On top of that, Jack (Johnny Depp) is double-crossing Will (Orlando Bloom), who is double-crossing Jones, who is double-crossing Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), who is double-crossing Jones, who is double-crossing Will, who is double-crossing Jack, who is double-crossing Norrington (Jack Davenport), who is double-crossing Jack, who is double-crossing Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), who is also double-crossing Jack. It’s a mess. And that’s before you try to get me to explain any of what was happening on the primitive island with the cannibal tribe, or anything to do with anyone working for the East India Trading Company. Like the magical compass, this movie points all over the place, unable to discern what the heck it wants most.
Fortunately, though, the thing I come for in any and all of these movies is the relationship between Elizabeth and Will, which also becomes more shaded and complex in Dead Man’s Chest, but in really rewarding ways. In the time between the first film and this one, Elizabeth and Will planned to be married, but as their wedding is delayed by their arrest (it’s always something), which is the inciting event that leads them down the path of Dead Man’s Chest plot. In a lot of ways, Elizabeth is underrated as a force to be reckoned with, and she proves herself to be wily and resourceful and really freaking good with a sword. The situation of both she and Will working toward similar purposes in opposite ways (and being separated for large swaths of the film, too, in which each has to get themselves out of myriad scrapes), works to almost wedge them apart, as neither entirely knows what the other is up to or why they’re doing what they’re doing. Adding to that Jack’s blatant flirting with Elizabeth and Norrington’s bitterness over her rejection, and the kiss she plants on Jack at the end of the film (to ensnare him into being shackled onto the Pearl while the others escape) elicits well-founded doubts and insecurities from Will, who never believed such a woman as she could love someone like him in the first place. The fact that he mistakes her guilt at sending Jack to his death for the broken heart of a woman who lost her lover is a complicating factor to them being together, but it is also a perfectly organic development of these characters within this story. And it portrays Elizabeth as a woman just as brave and strong and smart and, when needed, merciless as any pirate on the seas — a really solid deepening and exploration of her character that will carry into the third film.
Let’s move on to that one, then, shall we?
Viable Option 