Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: Gore Verbinski (The Ring, The Lone Ranger)
	Actors: Johnny Depp (The Ninth Gate, Transcendence), Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings 1-3), Keira Knighley (Love Actually), Bill Nighy (Shaun of the Dead), Stellan Skarsgård (The Avengers)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 31.03.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Because of help Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) to escape, Will Turner (Bloom) must now cheat his friend in order to regain his freedom and the one of his beloved Elizabeth (Kneighley). Meanwhile, Jack must find a way to repay his debt to the terrifying Davy Jones (Nighy).
Review: Same characters, new adventures. After the huge success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, they are all back for another round of sword fights, boat rides, treason and power plays. Surprisingly, I found this episode at least as good as the first. The more and more annoying lengthy fight scenes accompanied by a disturbing music are compensated by a new set of villains being the crew of the Flying Dutchman and its captain Davy Jones. Indeed the fights don't even bother with realisticity anymore, the highlight being the three-way sword fight between Jack (Depp), Will (Bloom) and Norrington (played by Jack Davenport): there is no choreography, the fight is shot from far and is only an excuse to display stunts like the ride on the watermill's wheel. On the other hand, I like the combined legend of Davy Jones (its locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the ocean where dead sailors rest) and of the Flying Dutchman (a legendary ghost ship), and the idea that the crew becomes in time part of the ocean (they turn into half-molluscs) or of the boat. Their design, in particular the one of Davy Jones and its tentacular beard, is more impressive I found than the zombies of the first movie. One must notice again the good performance by Johnny Depp (equal to the first movie) and the one of Bill Nighy as well. So in the end, I enjoyed this second episode and actually felt it less long than the first, while they are about equal in duration.
Rating: 6 /10