Arrrrrrrgggg Mateys!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. To see, or not to see?

[Warning, some spoilers ahead!]

I will freely admit, I was very excited to see this movie. I love the first one and thought that Johnny Depp's performance in it was brilliant. I didn't care much for Orlando Bloom (he's much better as an elf, in my humble opinion), and I thought Keira Knightly did a good job. It was funny, dramatic...and Johnny Depp really did make the movie a spectacular hit.

When compared to the first, which could have easily stood alone as it's own movie, the second one leaves a lot to be desired. Even taken by itself, it lacked both coherence and a convincing plot. Some scenes, like the one on the island where the natives thought Jack Sparrow was a god, were extraneous, and were only put in there to show off Johnny Depp's character (which wasn't well done, not because of the actor, but because of the unbelievably poor script writing).

Then there's the weird thing with Will Turner and his father that seemed kind of...lame. So Will's father is a slave on board Davy Jones' ship. And it tears Will up inside. Boohoo.

All in all, they really tried hard to make it overly melodramatic, which didn't really serve any useful purpose. Additionally, they threw in gimmicks from the last movie (Hello, poppit!) that didn't work well at all in this movie. They definitely tried to capitalize on the character of Jack Sparrow, and that failed miserably because (1) he was written as such a weak character in this movie, and (2) because of that, the other characters were as weak, if not weaker.

I fear a Matrix syndrome coming on: first one is great, second one was awful, and the third one is the worst of all. I'm undecided right now as to whether or not I'll actually shell out another $8 to see the last one when it comes out. If I do, it will only be after a lot of time reading reviews.