In a word: Wheeeeeeee!
Honestly, I never expected them to make a Pirates sequel. I just felt that it was the perfect self-contained movie, and I while I LOVED the first one, I really didn't feel I needed to know what happened to the characters next. For a while I had heard they were making a prequel, which sounded sort of boring to me - I kept thinking of the Mummy/Scorpion King movies. Besides, the original Pirates is such comic gold, such a magic movie. Even if you have the best writers, directors, and actors in Hollywood, luck is still a major factor in whether your movie is a hit. I don't mean to dismiss anyone's hard work, I'm just saying that even the best-planned projects can sink under their own weight without a little luck. And so my worries about Pirates 2 were quite justified.
So how did it go? Well, for the first half of the movie, I was still a bit worried. The original Pirates had something fun every minute. But for the first 45 minutes, Dead Man's Chest only had something fun every 5 minutes or so. I was still enjoying the movie, happy to see these characters again, but I was worried that it was never really going to take off. I thought the way they kept bringing the characters back together was a bit contrived, and it seemed like a lot of useless setup unless there was going to be a huge payoff.
After an hour into the movie, I was hooked. The magic was back: humor, creative action scenes, over-the-top swordplay and lots of eye candy. I was completely entertained right up until the end. By the way, like Pirates 1, make sure you stay through the end of the credits, there's another cute little tag.
In Short, if you liked the first one, you'll like this one. I don't have to tell you to go see it; fans of the first will have seen it by now anyway. But if you're riding the fence, go ahead and buy a ticket, I don't think you'll regret it.
Now... about the ending. (Possible spoiler alert)
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I didn't know it was going to be a two-parter. I'm not quite sure how I missed that - usually I pay attention to this stuff. I had heard that a third movie was already being planned, but I didn't know it was part 2 of this movie. The sudden cliffhanger ending annoyed me. Generally speaking, even when it's part 2 of a trilogy, a movie still has a definite beginning, middle, and end. In "Empire Strikes Back", the climax was the fight between Luke & Darth. In "Back To The Future 2", even though 2 & 3 were being filmed at the same time, they solved the movie's main plot point (the almanac screwing up the timeline) before introducing the cliffhanger (Doc Brown getting trapped in the past). Okay, there's exceptions... Kill Bill, for instance... but in Kill Bill, "Volume 1" was in the damn title!
But to me, Pirates 2 felt like it stopped in the middle. Yes, there is a climax when Jack encounters the (spoiler), and there is a little surprise right before the credits. But it still felt like they could have said "To Be Continued" at any point, and it would have been the same. I guess that's the mark of a successful movie, that it left me wanting more, and it's even better that we know more is coming. But I'd rather they have trimmed the first 45 minutes a little more (like have Elizabeth leave WITH Will, rather than spend so much time getting her back into his arms) , and made it one big long movie. I mean, if audiences can survive 3 hours of LOTR or Titanic, surely we can handle an extra hour of Pirates.
The other thing that annoys me: The first movie showed off the special effects of the dead people. The sequel showed off the special effects of the fish people. With this one cut in half, it looks like the third one will also be about the fish people... Come on, for a third movie, I want to see all-new bad guys! Keep in mind this is being said without really knowing anything about the third movie. I'm hoping I'm surprised.
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