July 18, 2006 -- “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” is an awkward middle episode of a movie trilogy that was never meant to be a trilogy in the first place. It is overlong and fast-paced with lots of cunning stunts and special effects. It starts and ends nowhere, merely marking time for the third episode in this trilogy. Yet this film is one of the most successful in movie history, raking in a pirate's treasure of box office loot. The third film looks to be money in the bank, regardless of its quality. All of this from a film series based on an amusement park ride. Anyone who thinks they can figure out the movie business is just kidding themselves.

The only thing that most people can agree on about the puzzling success of this franchise it that it is largely due to one man, Johnny Depp, a talented actor with a gift for defining offbeat characters. Depp plays the pirate captain Jack Sparrow with a kind of greasy, devious effeminate style. Depp says his performance is inspired by Keith Richards, the dissolute lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones, but he looks more like a drag queen in a pirate costume. Depp has made this strange character his own and it is a unique creation. The great success of this series is one reason some critics don't like it. The series has made a superstar out of Johnny Depp, an actor who has always been content to stay on Hollywood's outer fringes, often teaming with Tim Burton in quirky little films like the brilliant “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood.” These kinds of film are more artistic than they are commercial. This makes Depp the darling of the critics. But now he doesn't belong to the critics anymore. He is now a major movie star and is no longer confined to art house films. The other thing is the intense hatred many critics have toward any movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (like “Pearl Harbor,” for instance).

“Dead Man's Chest” is an awkward stepping stone to the next film in this series. In it, Jack Sparrow, captain of the Black Pearl, is trying to find a key that could enable him to escape his fate at the hands of Davy Jones (played by Bill Nighy of “Love Actually” who is unrecognizable in his octopus head makeup). Evidently Sparrow made a deal with Jones in order to secure the Black Pearl. Now Jones has come around to collect on the debt. Jones is some kind of devil who collects souls from desperate sailors. These sailors then serve on The Flying Dutchman, Jones' ship, to repay their debt to Jones.

In addition to Sparrow's jam with Jones, he is also being pursued by Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, reprising his role from the first film) and his fiancée, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, also reprising her role) who have been captured, along with Swann's father, Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce of “Tomorrow Never Dies”) by a ruthless bureaucrat, Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander of “Pride and Prejudice). Beckett sends Swann and Turner out to collect Sparrow's magic compass in return for a pardon for their crimes and Governor Weatherby Swann's freedom. This results in a mad scramble for the magic key to Davy Jones' locker by a whole bunch of people. Along the way, there are scapes with cannibals and a giant squid-like creature called a kraken. There is a very funny Monty Python-like moment in the film when two sailors debate the etymology of the word “kraken,” displaying hilariously improbable erudition.

The most impressive thing about Pirates, however, is the high level of its production values. The Black Pearl herself is a thing of beauty, the makeup and digital effects are top notch, especially the kraken and Davy Jones' half-human, half-fish crew. The idea here seems to be the longer you serve on the Flying Dutchman, the more fish-like you become. Particularly impressive in this regard is the man with a head like a hammerhead shark. The stunt work is also top notch with an incredible sword fight on a large rolling waterwheel. Sparrow's flight from cannibals while tied to a large stick is also very cleverly done. There are also several well-choreographed sword fighting scenes.

Aside from the flashy action scenes, the high production values and a lot of capable actors, the film does have its drawbacks. For one thing, it is way too long. The story spins its wheels and never really seems to make any progress, even at the end. It seems like half a movie that is twice as long as a normal movie. The film also has a large number of disgusting images. In one scene, Sparrow is shown eating what looks like a human thumb served by cannibals. Everyone seems to be dirty and most have bad teeth. A one-eyed man is shown spitting on his fake eye before putting it back into its socket. The whole crew of the Flying Dutchman is a collection of creepy, slimy half-fish creatures that eat even more disgusting stuff. I know the kids love this kind of crap, but the filmmakers really do go overboard with the revolting images. What purpose do they serve?

The film is a mixed bag. I enjoyed Johnny Depp's performance, even though he didn't have much to do. I greatly enjoyed the wonderful stunts and the nutty escape scenes on the cannibal island. I even liked the cannibals. They seemed genuinely sad and mystified as to why their entrées did not want to stick around for dinner. I liked the fact that the film's bad guy, Davy Jones, is a character with some complexity to him, and I liked the relationship between Will Turner and his father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgård). I also liked some of the movie references, like Davy Jones doing a Captain Nemo number on the Flying Dutchman pipe organ with his tentacles. There are some genuinely funny bits in the film. The lack of a real story, however, is a serious drawback, and then there are those vexing problems I mentioned before. This film rates a C+.

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Copyright © 2006 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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