Dead Man's Chest

I ventured over to the Drafthouse, this afternoon, for a matinee of "Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man's Chest". Good stuff, for the most art. I enjoyed the dialogue, once again. However, I felt, as have many critics, that Captain Jack was a little too scarce, this go around. In his place, the filmmakers felt the need to gorge their audience with an excess of special effects.

That's too bad, the finest selling point of the original film was its capacity to stand on its own. Without all the glitz.

1. What little we got of Captain Jack was, once again, great. I do think Depp was entitled to chew the scenery just a little bit more.

2. Cannibals. Cannibals are cool. In pirate movies. I don't want them living next door, or anything, but I certainly want to see them in my pirate movies.

3. I actually got to like Davy Jones. I was a bit put off by the look of the character, initially. He just felt too... over the top. But, after seeing Bill Nighy use the character to create such a strange speech pattern, was kinda cool.

That being said. I hated the ending. What an utter disappointment. I'm not referring to the inevitable cliffhanger. I'm referring to the absolutely unresolved storylines and the cheesy comic book character reveal in the moments before the credits.

Way to dumb things down, guys.