Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I saw this movie last night at the 12:01am showing in downtown Seattle. It was a lot of fun with each showing room playing the movie and all 12 rooms sold out. I went with my sister and her friends who were all dressed up as pirates (not myself) which added to the enjoyment.

As for the movie, this was a great sequel to the first except for one thing... they made too many references to the first movie and too many references to the ride. It seems as if Disney is still trying to assert that the movie is related to their themed ride in their parks while the first movie did more than enough of that. The biggest problem I saw is that they tried to make references but put just enough twist on them so that you found it out of place, if they would have left well enough alone it would have been alright. I wont give any of them away but for anyone who sees the movie you should know what I am talking about.

The cast was once again fantastic, there are plenty of twists and truckloads of humor in the sequel that made the first movie so enjoyable. Jonny Depp is still a fantastic actor and really brings the leading role of Captain Jack Sparrow to life. Kiera Knightly is absolutely gorgeous and appears to get even more-so with age.

The plot is in a way predictably unpredictable and follows the same theme as the first movie while tossing in more twists and turns. For anyone who doesn't understand the ending of the movie, there WILL be a third (slated for release in 2007) and I feel it will be just as entertaining as the first and second if Disney is able to retain the same actors and director. Speaking of director, Gore Verbinski has once again out done himself.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I would give it two thumbs up and say it is well worth the overpriced cost of a theater movie ticket to see on the big screen. Overall grade for Pirates 2 is going to have to be a B. It's a decent sequel to the first but needs some work to move into the A category, and could have used some more fresh ideas.

- Mitch