Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the second in the Pirates series, and the last one I own. It stars Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly, Orlando Bloom, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Kevin McNally, Tom Hollander, and Stellan Skarsgard.
I have to say, the opening sequence of this movie, showing the spread for the wedding of Will Turner (Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightly) being ruined by the rain and by Will's arrest for piracy is really nice. We jump right in and establish the stakes: The two lovers helped Jack Sparrow (Depp) escape the gallows, so now Lord Beckett (Hollander) is here to mete out justice. Mostly, though, he wants something specific: Jack's compass. For that, he's willing to pardon Jack (and, it's implied, keep Will and Elizabeth from the gallows).
Will goes to find Jack, who's having his own issues. The treasure from the first movie, we're told, was "swallowed by the sea", and the crew of the Black Pearl hasn't been doing well. Worse, Jack gets a visit from Bootstrap Bill Turner (Skarsdard), who should be dead, but sold his soul to Davy Jones (Nighy) and is slowly become sea life. Jack made a deal with Jones, and promised to pay with his soul. When Will finally catches up with Jack, he and what remains of the crew are captives of a tribe of cannibals. They manage to escape that by rolling through the jungle, and get away on the Pearl...just in time for Jones to catch up.
Anyway, there's a lot more, lots of action and a whole other sequence involving rolling through the jungle, which I thought was kind of unnecessary. The guts of it is that Davy Jones keeps his heart on land, but can't set foot on land but once a decade (why doesn't he keep his heart at the bottom of the ocean? We're not told, seems like a bit of a misstep). Beckett really wants the compass because it points to whatever the holder wants most, which would allow him to find the heart, but that's what he really wants, because holding power over Jones means you hold power over the sea. Norrington (Davenport) winds up in the mix because chasing Jack cost him his commission and his career, and of course Elizabeth catches up, and we have this love triangle kind of thing with her, Will, and Jack.
I have to say, I like this movie more than I remember liking it when I first saw it, and it's making me wonder if I just waited too long to watch the third one because these movies do not waste a lot of time with exposition (they waste time with action sequences instead). The characters grow and develop from movie to movie, and the lore is kept pretty consistent. The love triangle isn't so much because Elizabeth has feelings for Jack as what he represents (freedom, lust, all the things that proper women don't get), and it's gratifying to see Elizabeth just fully embrace that impulse and straight-up murder Jack to keep Will safe, while Will himself is pretty committed to remaining honorable and fulfilling his promises.
I dunno, I may need to stream At World's End just to see if it holds up.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: The Pit & the Pendulum
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