Priates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Verbinski, 2006)

***1/2

Well, here it is – the review you’ve all been waiting eagerly for. I now present to you, the Mattinee faithful, with my review of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” the second installment in the hit trilogy.

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley reprise their roles as swashbuckling trio Jack, Will and Elizabeth. The film picks up shortly after the events of “The Curse of the Black Pearl,” with Will and Elizabeth prepared to be married.

But when an East India Trading Company official (yes, the same who branded Jack with his infamous “P” for pirate) arrives with arrest warrants for the couple, along with James Norrington (Jake Davenport), the wedding plans come to a screeching halt. The deal is, Will has to find Jack Sparrow and claim his “broken” compass or he, his fiancé and poor Norrington will hang.

Thing is, Jack has his own set of problems. Turns out that Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), a tentacle-bearded demon sea captain, is out to collect Jack’s soul. Now Jack, Will, Elizabeth and Norrington are all out to find the fabled “Dead Man’s Chest,” in order to stop Davy Jones and return home. And the only method of finding the chest? Jack’s “broken” compass.

The first “Pirates” flick was a charming, swashbuckling romp that took everyone by surprise, both with its quality and its prowess at the box office. This second foray into the world of pirates and magic is also looking to shatter box office records, but director Gore Verbinski has also opted out some of the charm and a lot of the substance.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed “Dead Man’s Chest.” Just maybe not as much as I enjoyed “The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Why? Well, it comes down to this. “Black Pearl” was a film you could watch over and over again and never get bored – it had a fantastic rewatchability (just made up a word) factor to it. I just can’t imagine myself wanting to watch this second film again and again and again.

The characters that we came to love in the first film are strangely unlikable in this movie. They fight and squabble, betraying and lying to one another through the entire course of the film. Even Jack Sparrow, possibly one of the most likable characters in recent film, is a despicable scoundrel. And yes, I know – he’s a pirate. But at some point, we need to see a bit of good in the character. We saw in the first film numerous times, but it’s coldly absent until the very climax in “Dead Man’s Chest.”

The action in the film is also absurdly over-the-top. Yes, it’s a movie about cursed pirates, giant squids and magic compasses, but at some point – possibly when Jack, Will and Norrington are all dueling atop a giant mill wheel while a crew of cursed fish-men chase after Elizabeth and two formerly-cursed pirates, who have a chest containing the still beating heart of their immortal captain, Davy Jones, who also has command over a giant squid known as the Kraken – we might want to question the direction of the film.

Scenes like the one mentioned above are crazy and entertaining at first, but the novelty soon wears off and they become daunting to watch. I’m typically one for over-the-top action sequences, but when a film starts to feel like it’s nothing but, it becomes tiresome.

The character of Davy Jones is also criminally underdeveloped. There’s a vague back story at one point that hazily explains why he might be the way he is, but I definitely felt like I enjoyed Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa a bit more.

However, on the bright side of things, the film is splendidly entertaining. There wasn’t a single boring moment, or a wasted inch of screen. “Dead Man’s Chest” is chock-full of vibrant, exuberant characters, situations and settings.

My reaction to this movie was hard to pinpoint. The film was immensely disappointing in some aspects, but completely satisfying in others. I suppose I might feel differently towards “Dead Man’s Chest” once “World’s End” is released next summer. Maybe the two films fit together snugly like a single one and complete the picture.

If nothing else, the final scene alone gives me immense amounts of hope for the third installment.

If my review was a little heavy-handed, I apologize. The film is a solid piece of work; maybe not as full and odor-free as the first, but still a quality summer action flick.

I look forward to seeing “World’s End” next summer.