Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

What do you want in a movie? Action? It's got it. Romance? It's got it. Suspense? It's got it. Surprises? Holy Cow does it got it. Special Effects? Only the best, and by the boat loads (excuse the lame nautical pun) Johnny Depp? It's got him, back in the smashing reprise of his best screen presence to date. I can't ruin surprises so this will be vague at best, but here's a summer movie like only one other, and of course I'm talking about 2003's "Curse of the Black Pearl" (I've never made a review on this one, but it receives four solid gold stars from me. A rarity in films; both a rip-roaring, mainstream, bona fide box office success, and a cult classic.) I can't say that this sequel is better than the first, but it is just as good in many ways, and introduces so many new elements into the story that it is at once connected to the original but totally sea worthy on its own. (somebody stop these lame puns, please. It's not my fault, it's almost four in the morning, I've just returned from the midnight showing) There are so many twists and turns much like the first one in that you can't ever really pin down the ending until it's staring you in the shell shocked face. Gore Verbinski remains one of my favorite directors, giving this film the same care and quality as his others producing an excellent finished work. There are so few pirate movies these days and when I watch this it makes me kind of sad, there's a whole world to be explored among the pirates, but after I've returned to the real world, when credits have rolled, I realize it's actually a good thing that the pirate genre is so exclusive to these films. Can you imagine all the second and third rate actors of the world attempting to reproduce Depp's legendary (for he is in fact just that) Captain Jack Sparrow? Or worse, some atrocious form of animated pirate crew? What Disney has going with Pirates of the Caribbean is a very good thing. Good for them. Good for us. Really good for Orlando Bloom. (as long as he's here, no one's forcing him into acting school) That's a low blow to be sure, but there are only so many stilted love conversations we can bear between Will and Elizabeth. Blaming Knightly will do you very little good, we all saw Pride and Prejudice, so we know she's capable, and heaven help us all when she and Johnny Depp converse, the sparks don't stop! I can only assume it's Bloom who scuttles that particular ship. (Oh I'm three for three, though that one was just a little forced.) What am I doing, I now ask myself, I'm sitting here attacking the hero and stabbing both them as actors and myself as a reviewer in the back. The simple fact of this movie is this: it is great, not just like "talking with a middle aged woman after Sunday service" great, but like thrilling, astounding, cinematically excellent, Great! It broke through all the pre-set notions I had about theme-park-ride-movie-sequels (oh wait, there's never been one before) and fulfilled every fleeting hope I had for it's potential. I can do no more than to tell you that if you liked the first one, see this one, I can think of no reason why you'd be disappointed.

A