[Movies] Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the stunning sequel to the hit theme-park-ride-to-movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Where the first movie made it's mark by defining the Pirates universe without being dependent on the "story" of the original ride (not that you can really consider that source material) and took things to another by adding in pretty much more of everything. You name it and you get it - more special effects, more fight scenes, more character development and of course much more of Captain Jack Sparrow.

They even won awards for this one. That has to mean something.

The movie picks up very quickly from where the last one took off. The somewhat faster pacing is used to move the story along very steadily at the onset. While it diverts and drags slightly here and there, overall it's still a pretty gripping tale.

All the usual players are back for a second round and even better they've added the seafood-enhanced Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his motley crew of fishy pirates. Because of them a lot of money was obviously funneled into special effects and clearly it was worth every penny. The pirates are just so diverse in terms of how they take on the characteristics of their respective sea creatures, it's just phenomenal.

And of course there's a lot of story that backs up all the production value. Since all the set up is done, they have a lot more time to develop the characters and make them seem less one-sided. Elizabeth (Keira Knightly) is a whole lot stronger as a character and Will (Orlando Bloom is no longer as big a wuss as he was in the first movie.

The story explores the supernatural side of things even more given the somewhat complicated back story behind Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. Throw in the intrigues of the East India Company and you end up with a pretty solid plot that promises to keep you watching.

Of course this is actually the middle of a trilogy of Pirates films so it ends rather abruptly with a lot of loose ends. Thankfully they decide to tie up most of them come the sequel but that's a tale for another entry.