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As Will and Elizabeth prepare to exchange vows at the alter,
their wedding plans hit rough waters with the arrival of sea-bound
scallywag Captain Jack Sparrow. The captain has found he has
a debt to pay: he made a bargain for his soul with Davy Jones
himself, the ghostly, fearsome ruler of the ocean depths,
and he needs all the help he can get to escape this time...
Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
picks up where The
Curse of the Black Pearl left off... more or
less. Will and Elizabeth's wedding is interrupted when officials
from the East India Trading company arrive with warrants to
arrest them both. In allowing Captain Jack Sparrow to escape,
it appears that the British crown wants to make an example
of them both. They are offered clemency on condition that
Will finds Sparrow and brings back his compass. Will is unsure
why the East India Trading company should want a compass that
doesn't actually work, but he agrees to their terms and heads
off to look for Sparrow.
In
the meantime Sparrow, who is once again captain of The
Black Pearl, has discovered that a pact he made with Davy
Jones has made him a marked man. It seems that Davy Jones
is out to reclaim what is rightfully his - Sparrow's soul.
The
movie is possibly one of the most complex blockbusters you'll
ever see. This is by no means a complaint though - it's great
to see that the writers manage to cram so much in to the film's
duration without patronising the audience. This is especially
impressive when you consider this is the first of a two-part
story. At no point do you feel like the writers are padding
the plot out with pointless elements in a bid to keep some
story elements in their back pocket for the third movie, At
World's End.
One
of the plus point for me was the fact that all of the main
characters are not what they at first appear. How refreshing
to have a Hollywood blockbuster movie where you are uncertain
of how honourable the heroes are. In fact this was something
that the first movie played with somewhat. While you were
always unsure of Sparrow's real intentions, Barbossa wasn't
your usual Hollywood 2D villain. In fact he's not really that
evil a character. He's just a poor soul who is trying to cure
his crew of the curse. He wasn't interested in killing for
the sake of it.
As
with the first movie, this film is well written, directed
and acted. And, once again, the CGI effects are really impressive.
Well... except for the Kraken attack on the ship. That looks
a little poor, as though they hadn't quite got the lighting
right.
As
with the Blu-ray release of the first movie, I'm really unsure
how much of the extra material was/wasn't on the DVD release.
But, again, everything on these two discs could easily have
fitted on to one Blu-ray disc.
On
disc one we get the movie; three scenes that the DVD makers
think will show off the video and sound of the film best on
home theatre systems; and Liar's Dice - an interactive
game. Liar's Dice is actually quite a fun addition.
It's basically a version of the game that's in the movie.
You play against Pintel, from the movie, as you try and beat
him in a round of the dice game. The other notable character
from the movie is Marty, who also hurls abuse at you as you
play. The only annoying aspect is that every time you play
they all go on a rum raid, for no real reason, about half
way through the game. While this is funny the first time,
it gets a little annoying if you play again.
My
biggest complaint with disc one is that isn't a DTS soundtrack
option for the English version of the movie (only the German
and Italian dubs include a DTS option). Also why on earth
are there no audio
commentaries? There is at least one on the DVD, so why not
on the Blu-ray edition?
Disc
two is packed to bursting with extras, but to be honest there's
nothing here that would not fit onto a single DVD disc and
I doubt there's anything you'd want to watch more than once.
The menu text is too small to read on most normal screens,
which means you have to press your face up against the screen
to read what most of the features are.
Features
include: Charting the Return (26 min look at the problems
getting the movie up and running. Highlights include the problems
of getting a late script to the director and the casting for
the skinny pirates); According to Plan (1hr 3 min look
at the entire location shoot for the movie. There are some
incredible locations images and this is certainly one of the
more interesting features I've seen); Captain Jack From
Head to Toe (26 min look at all aspects of Jack Sparrow's
costume. This can be played in segments or as one long feature);
Meet Davy Jones - Anatomy of a Legend (13 min look
at how they created the CGI for the character as well as Bill
Nighy's role in its creation); Creating the Kraken
(10 min look at the Kraken scenes); Dead Men Tell New Tales
- Re-Imagining the Attraction (13 min look at the slightly
revamped Disneyland ride which now has a couple of very convincing
Johnny Depp animatronic figures and a not so realistic Barbossa
figure); Fly on the Sea - The Bone Cage (4 min look
at filming the bone cage scene. It shows us how they got the
effect of the bone cage swinging - by actually swinging it
from a crane with all the actors inside. Orlando Bloom looks
genuinely surprised when he's told what's going to happen,
but it's too late he's already inside the cage); Jerry
Bruckheimer - A Producers Photo Diary (5 min
look at the beautiful photos Bruckheimer took will on location);
Pirates on Main Street - The Dead Man's Chest Premiere
(4 min featurette that shows the stars attending the movie's
premiere); Stills from the Set (6 min); Bloopers
of the Caribbean (4 mins of mistakes from the film); 3
x Mastering the Blade featurettes that show how Orlando
Bloom (6 min), Keira Knightly (5 min) and Jack Davenport (5
min) fared when it came to doing their own sword fights; 2
x Pirates on Location features - that are basically
very short highlights (lasting 8 min and 4 min) of the According
to Plan footage; and finally under the Pirates Around
the World section we get a selection of trailers and teaser
trailers in various languages.
This
release doesn't really showcase the benefits of Blu-ray technology.
Okay, the Liar's Dice game has a stab at it, but to
be honest you'd be much better off buying the DVD edition
- unless the additional picture quality (which won't be that
noticeable on most current TV sets anyway) is something that
you really want.
That
makes this release hard to review. The movie and extras get
a solid 10/10, but the fact that this is spread over two discs
when one would do, that there's nothing that exciting on here
that's not on the DVD release, and that an English DTS audio
track is missing means that my final mark will be much less
than it should be.
Darren
Rea
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