Review – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Two things surprised me about this movie, though in retrospect neither of them should have. The first was how strongly it depended on the original. I went to see it with a friend who hadn’t seen the first one, and that helped make me acutely aware of all of the considerable number of moments where a joke or plot twist or even just a bit of dialogue was a reference to Curse of the Black Pearl. The second surprise was that after two and a half hours the ending was a weak set-up for yet another sequel. References to past and future productions aside, this stands up reasonably well as a fluffy bit of summer fun. The script isn’t as tight as the original, and Johnny Depp mails in his performance. But in exchange we get more extensive special effects and more elaborate fight sequences. Mildly amusing