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[personal profile] davywavy
Well, the question that people are asking is: is it good? Is it better than other sequels like, say, Matrix Reloaded? Is is better than the Sequel Holy Grails - Empire Strikes Back, Aliens and Addams Family Values?

Yes, it's good. Very good in places, but it's got weaknesses. It's a good half hour too long, for starters. After some opening exposition, Dead Man's Chest opens with an overly long and utterly unnecessary cannibal island sequence which could easily have been cut from the film and you'd've lost nothing. If you happen to be half an hour late when you go and see this film, don't bother waiting for the next showtime, just walk right in and enjoy the remaining couple of hours - because they are very enjoyable indeed.
The plot (and I'm not giving anything away here) centres around the search for villain Davy Jones' titular Dead Man's Chest, the contents of which are sufficiently valuable to make everyone in their right mind desire them.
When I read interviews before the film, everyone involved was at pains to make clear that this film was going to be 'a romp' - so I don't think I can be blamed for sitting and drumming my fingers for the first hour or so and wondering "If this film is supposed to be a romp, where's the bloody romping?". It's not until the titular chest makes it's appearence that said comedic piratical romping really shifts into gear and makes the wait worthwhile. The thing is, like Matrix Reloaded, most of this film is just exposition and setting the scene for film 3, and we're going to wait for film 3 to see if the scene setting was worthwhile. From the ending, I'd say it will be - simply because I was left sitting in the cinema at the end thinking "Bugger me, I didn't see that coming", and it's rare that any film takes me so by surprise.

The scriptwriters freely admit they used Empire Strikes Back as a template for the script, and it shows - Princess Leia Kiera Knightley snogs Han Solo Captain Jack. R2 and 3PO Pintel and Ragetti provide comic relief. Luke Skywalker Orlando Bloom is wooden but all the girls seem to fancy him. And so forth.
I hope that the scriptwriters don't use Return of the Jedi as their template for film 3 because Dead Man's Chest has done an ace job of setting up a barnstorming finale - and Ewoks would ruin it.

Oh, and there's a little scene at the end of all the credits. If you like watching credits, by all means stay for it. If you don't, by all means leave. It's one joke, and it's not a very funny one.

Date: 2006-07-10 10:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tooth-fairy.livejournal.com
No Ewoks?

I'm disappointed

Date: 2006-07-10 12:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
Not yet. Ewoks are for film 3.

Date: 2006-07-10 10:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gnommi.livejournal.com
pirate ewoks?

Date: 2006-07-10 11:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sea-of-flame.livejournal.com
Despite knowing we /should/ stay for the credits, we forgot - so what was that scene, damnit?

Date: 2006-07-10 11:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
The comedy cannibals worshipping the dog we saw them chasing as a god. Foreign people naturally worship anything they've never seen before as a god, you know. Their little brains aren't capable of comprehending anything else.

Date: 2006-07-10 11:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sherbetsaucers.livejournal.com
Indeed, but considering how amusing forigners can be, and the fact that their heading off to Asia, who knows what revelence your Ewok line may have.

Date: 2006-07-10 11:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
I have a dark dread that for 'Ewoks' we may read 'Comedy Chinamen'.

Date: 2006-07-10 07:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sherbetsaucers.livejournal.com
That's what I was hinting at old man.

Date: 2006-07-11 10:41 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449088/ - All hail Chow Yun-Fat

Date: 2006-07-11 10:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
Eddie Hitler, is that you?

Date: 2006-07-11 10:48 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Er, no. No idea who that is.

Date: 2006-07-10 03:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] applez.livejournal.com
So I take it the Garifuna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garifuna) were the Cannibals, not the Ewoks. ;-)

ref this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean:_Dead_Man%27s_Chest).

---

Still, Cannibal Ewoks, without Giant Apes or Dinosaurs might be kindda cool.

Date: 2006-07-10 03:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
The Ewoks were cannibals - if you recall, they were about to eat Luke et al until convinced that 3PO was a god. In much the same way that they were convinced Cap'n Jack was a god.
Not that the scriptwriters liquidised the Star Wars trilogy DVD and took it intravenously, you understand.

Date: 2006-07-10 03:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] applez.livejournal.com
Good point, but its easy to forget when the Ewoks were lacking in gorey maws and blood-matted fur ... and they took a shine to Chewbacca besides. ;-)

Technically though, the Ewoks were sapiens-carnivores, since we didn't see evidence of semi-consumed Ewoks in their presence.

Date: 2006-07-10 03:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com
The Empire comparisons are inevitable. The film even ends with Han and Leia doing the "I love you/I know" thing moments before Han is frozen in carbonite. With a twist, yes, but the comparison is there.

Date: 2006-07-10 04:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] applez.livejournal.com
Oh dear ... playah scripts brought to Pirates. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Date: 2006-07-10 06:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] applez.livejournal.com
I suppose the truly important question about this Empire Strikes Back-channeling by Pirates 2 is ... is there a vagina dentata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina_dentata)?

Sarlack pit, ha!

Date: 2006-07-11 01:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] silver-blue.livejournal.com
[i]Ewoks would ruin it.[/i]

Unless they killed them. :)

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