Blogarama - The Blog Directory
OnlineWide Web Directory
Top Entertainment Blogs
Link With Us - Web Directory
Blog Directory Submit
Paparelli's Movie Reviews
Well, it's just, like... my opinion, man

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sunday, August 06, 2006

year: 2006
directed by: Gore Verbinski
written by: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
notable cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Naomie Harris
Paparelli's rating: (0 = worst, **** = best)

Again a very hard movie to review. Possibly the movie I have the most ambivalent feelings about of all movies I reviewed for this blog.

First of all I have to praise the magnificent art direction which is truly sensational and is beyond any doubt among the best you'll ever see in any movie. Just for that alone it's worth paying the ticket and sitting through the 2.5 hours of..., of what exactly?

At first it seems to be an exciting Treasure Island kind of story, but after a promising start the storyline crumbles beyond repair and degrades to a childish form of slapstick comedy. Obvisously born from an urge to please multiple age groups, although I have the feeling small kids will actually be scared stiff by the grown-up parts of the movie, while adults almost fall asleep of boredom during the kids-oriented parts of the movie.

The tension that is built in the first 20 minutes of the movie is never released and only in the last 30 minutes or so the pace seems to pick up again. And then, just as you get the feeling they're making it up to you with a grande finale, they pull the plug just before the climax of the story and tell you to wait for the sequel! That's probably the most effective recipe for a disappointed audience I've ever seen.

Thumbs up though for the set decoration, props, costumes, camerawork, lighting, sounds, music, make-up and computer generated graphics in this production. It's truly sensational what athmosphere they are able to create. Especially the bad guy of the movie, Davey Jones - played wonderfully by Bill Nighy, really gives me the creeps just by the mean look in his eyes and of course the truly wonderful computer graphics.

And also Naomie Harris, playing the scary yet sensual voodoo enchantress Tia Dalma is a sight to behold. Very well designed and very well portrayed. Characters like Davey Jones and Tia Dalma are strong and interesting enough to see this movie a second time for, but I would have to struggle to sit through the whole length of the movie again, knowing how boring and stupid the story is.

Also, I'm a bit uncomfortable with Johnny Depp boasting about his performance and telling everybody how well he got inspired by Keith Richards for his portrayal of Jack Sparrow. The character of Sparrow in this movie is very flat and hardly offers more than a couple of cheap mannerisms Depp developed in the first "Pirates" movie.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment