Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Last Watch Date - July 7, 2025
Total Times Watched - 2
Comments
As stated previously, I was watching this as part of its original trilogy. The last time I had seen this was in theaters I believe. With the wild success of the first Pirates movie, it was inevitable that they'd have at least one sequel, but they sure do love having trilogies. This movie was filmed back-to-back with its direct sequel, so it's basically a mega-movie split into two. Each of these is well over two hours by the way! This one clocks in at 2:31.
Let's start there, because it annoys me when I sit through long movies that don't have enough to say. This movie did NOT need to be this long. Even if you consider it's setting everything up for the very next movie, THAT movie doesn't have enough meat on it to be as long as it is either! They could've condensed both of these into one movie and it would've been amazing. Instead we get a lot of slow beats and unnecessary filler scenes.
The cast is largely the same as the first, but now we have Stellan Skårsgard as Will Turner's dad, Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, and Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma. Bootstrap Bill is not an interesting character. He's too meek and docile to give off real pirate vibes, and his story doesn't really pull you in at all. He's really only there to push Will Turner's plot along a certain direction. Bill Nighy is really fun as Davy Jones. He has good affectations and an interesting charisma that most of the other characters lack. Naomie Harris feels like a token "witch" type of character in this and really does nothing for it. As a sidenote, I absolutely hate her storyline in the following movie but we'll leave that for now.
Given that this is a sequel to the first, does it actually add to the story? It does! But probably in ways you don't care about. The Davy Jones story is tainted by a love story and the fact that his "still beating heart" is in a chest that enables the holder to control him. How does that even work? Is it based on threat of death? Is there some magical power you gain by holding it? This is not explained at all. Worse, this makes less sense in the sequel. I'LL GET TO IT.
There is more swashbuckling and adventure in this one and most of it hits pretty well, but the weak parts of this are really weak.
Recommended?
No. It doesn't live up to the first, and if anything makes the story a bit worse.
