Just because you can do something does not mean you have to. Long and noisy is not enough.
Yet none of this fancy CGI work can make up for a lack of strong personal relationships among the people involved, and here is where the movie lets us down. The script merely hands us a boatload of beloved characters--the three leads, plus Jack Davenport as the treacherous Commodore Norrington, now in considerably reduced circumstances, Stellan Skarsgard as Bootstrap Bill, William's deceased father, Kevin McNally as First Mate Gibbs, Geoffrey Rush in a cameo as Barbossa, and Naomie Harris, Lee Arenberg, and Mackenzie Crook as various friendly miscreants--and the filmmakers expect us to follow them anywhere, no matter if they're doing nothing at all.
Oh, well, maybe for most filmgoers the characters and their clever lines are enough. For me, the movie was overlong and rather tiring.
Trivia note: One would think that the song "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest" (from which the moviemakers derived their title) was a genuine old sea shanty. But no one has yet to prove that Robert Louis Stevenson didn't just make it up for his book "Treasure Island" in 1881 (long after the time setting of our movie), basing it on bits and pieces of old tunes he picked up wherever. Be that as it may, the song has come into our culture, implanting itself so firmly that it might just as well be authentic, and Disney was smart to capitalize on it.
Video:
I found both the video and the audio for this second "Pirates" adventure slightly better than that for the first one, even though the first one was THX mastered. The movie's 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio shows up at about 2.23:1, anamorphic, across my widescreen television (given a small degree of overscan), with the movie's standard-definition resolution showing to good effect courtesy of a high-bit-rate transfer. There is a touch of graininess in the darker scenes, nothing that probably wasn't inherent to the original print, and, otherwise, the image is bright and colorful in some shots and soft and subdued in others, depending on the nature of the story. I was especially impressed by the sharpness of facial contours, whiskers, and beards. It's a nice-looking picture.
Audio:
I have nothing but praise for the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, too. It's probably as good as it gets, although I longed to hear it in Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD. There is a very wide dynamic range involved, a midrange that is reasonably clean and clear, a strong impact, and an extremely big, deep, ofttimes thumping bass. Moreover, there are lots of surprises in the surrounds--voices, creakings, waves, arrows, cannon shot, and the like.
Extras:
This 2-Disc Special Edition offers the usual assortment of goodies. Disc one contains the widescreen version of the film itself, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages, French and Spanish subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, it has an audio commentary with writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who, naturally enough, provide a good deal of information about the scripting of each scene. And it contains a three-minute section called "Bloopers of the Caribbean," which is fairly self-explanatory, twenty-eight scene selections, a chapter insert and navigational guide to the contents of both discs, and Sneak Peeks at nine other Disney products, including a preview of some of the studio's upcoming Blu-ray releases.
Disc two contains a number of documentaries and featurettes on the making of the film. Most of it, frankly, seems either redundant or pedestrian, and I would say its limited appeal may be best suited for adults. Starting things off is a twenty-five-minute preproduction diary, "Charting the Return," that explains more than we probably need to know about the planning of the film. Next is a sixty-two-minute, on-location journal, "According to Plan," that takes us behind the scenes with the filmmakers and actors. It could have done its job in half the time. After that is "Captain Jack from Head to Toe," about twenty-seven minutes if played all at once, telling us about Depp's costumes, makeup, and props.
Continuing on, we find a number of shorter segments. "Mastering the Blade" is about five minutes of stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Jack Davenport honing their sword-fighting skills. "Meet Davy Jones: Anatomy of a Legend" is a twelve-minute bit on the CGI creation of the sea's ghostly ruler. "Creating the Kraken" is ten minutes of more CGI work, this time for the sea monster. "Dead Men Tell New Tales," ten minutes, explains how the famous Disneyland ride that inspired the movie got a face-lift to more resemble the movie. "Fly on the Set: The Bone Cage" is a three-minute piece on, well, the making of the bone cage. "Jerry Bruckheimer: A Producer's Photo Journey" is about four minutes of mainly still photography. And "Pirates on Main Street" is four minutes on the film's première.
The two discs come housed in a double slim-line keep case, further packaged in a handsomely embossed, beautifully illustrated slipcover.
Parting Shots:
"Dead Man's Chest" relies too heavily on our affection for the first movie and its characters to develop anything really new or exciting on its own. The location shooting is fine, the acting is fine, the movie's visual appearance and audio are fine, and, most of all, Johnny Depp's performance is fine. It's the script that needs work (sorry, Misters Elliott and Rossio). Now that filmmakers can recreate practically anything they want on screen, they might try to find a story solid enough to justify the effort. Just because you can do something does not mean you have to. Long and noisy is not enough.
Oh, well, maybe for most filmgoers the characters and their clever lines are enough. For me, the movie was overlong and rather tiring.
Trivia note: One would think that the song "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest" (from which the moviemakers derived their title) was a genuine old sea shanty. But no one has yet to prove that Robert Louis Stevenson didn't just make it up for his book "Treasure Island" in 1881 (long after the time setting of our movie), basing it on bits and pieces of old tunes he picked up wherever. Be that as it may, the song has come into our culture, implanting itself so firmly that it might just as well be authentic, and Disney was smart to capitalize on it.
Video:
I found both the video and the audio for this second "Pirates" adventure slightly better than that for the first one, even though the first one was THX mastered. The movie's 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio shows up at about 2.23:1, anamorphic, across my widescreen television (given a small degree of overscan), with the movie's standard-definition resolution showing to good effect courtesy of a high-bit-rate transfer. There is a touch of graininess in the darker scenes, nothing that probably wasn't inherent to the original print, and, otherwise, the image is bright and colorful in some shots and soft and subdued in others, depending on the nature of the story. I was especially impressed by the sharpness of facial contours, whiskers, and beards. It's a nice-looking picture.
Audio:
I have nothing but praise for the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, too. It's probably as good as it gets, although I longed to hear it in Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD. There is a very wide dynamic range involved, a midrange that is reasonably clean and clear, a strong impact, and an extremely big, deep, ofttimes thumping bass. Moreover, there are lots of surprises in the surrounds--voices, creakings, waves, arrows, cannon shot, and the like.
Extras:
This 2-Disc Special Edition offers the usual assortment of goodies. Disc one contains the widescreen version of the film itself, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages, French and Spanish subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, it has an audio commentary with writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who, naturally enough, provide a good deal of information about the scripting of each scene. And it contains a three-minute section called "Bloopers of the Caribbean," which is fairly self-explanatory, twenty-eight scene selections, a chapter insert and navigational guide to the contents of both discs, and Sneak Peeks at nine other Disney products, including a preview of some of the studio's upcoming Blu-ray releases.
Disc two contains a number of documentaries and featurettes on the making of the film. Most of it, frankly, seems either redundant or pedestrian, and I would say its limited appeal may be best suited for adults. Starting things off is a twenty-five-minute preproduction diary, "Charting the Return," that explains more than we probably need to know about the planning of the film. Next is a sixty-two-minute, on-location journal, "According to Plan," that takes us behind the scenes with the filmmakers and actors. It could have done its job in half the time. After that is "Captain Jack from Head to Toe," about twenty-seven minutes if played all at once, telling us about Depp's costumes, makeup, and props.
Continuing on, we find a number of shorter segments. "Mastering the Blade" is about five minutes of stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Jack Davenport honing their sword-fighting skills. "Meet Davy Jones: Anatomy of a Legend" is a twelve-minute bit on the CGI creation of the sea's ghostly ruler. "Creating the Kraken" is ten minutes of more CGI work, this time for the sea monster. "Dead Men Tell New Tales," ten minutes, explains how the famous Disneyland ride that inspired the movie got a face-lift to more resemble the movie. "Fly on the Set: The Bone Cage" is a three-minute piece on, well, the making of the bone cage. "Jerry Bruckheimer: A Producer's Photo Journey" is about four minutes of mainly still photography. And "Pirates on Main Street" is four minutes on the film's première.
The two discs come housed in a double slim-line keep case, further packaged in a handsomely embossed, beautifully illustrated slipcover.
Parting Shots:
"Dead Man's Chest" relies too heavily on our affection for the first movie and its characters to develop anything really new or exciting on its own. The location shooting is fine, the acting is fine, the movie's visual appearance and audio are fine, and, most of all, Johnny Depp's performance is fine. It's the script that needs work (sorry, Misters Elliott and Rossio). Now that filmmakers can recreate practically anything they want on screen, they might try to find a story solid enough to justify the effort. Just because you can do something does not mean you have to. Long and noisy is not enough.
![Quark [TV Show]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=24990&sizew=70&cat=3)
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]19820[/release]