Even further, it doesn’t help that that occasional drag exposes the fact that Dead Man’s Chest is only half a story, one meant to be completed by At World’s End. It ends on a great cliffhanger, admittedly – the audience reaction to the reveal of Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa is a theater moment I’ll never forget – but because the film runs too long, it can make rewatching the pic on its own a bit of a daunting experience simply because it has no real payoff of its own.
That said, it does deserve credit for taking a page out of the Empire Strikes Back playbook in leaving the story in a dark place, bringing the film full circle back to its relatively depressing opening. Beckett “wins” by having Jones’ heart delivered to him by Norrington. Jack Sparrow is dead, killed by the Kraken while everyone else escapes the Black Pearl. Will believes Elizabeth is in love with Jack, having seen her kissing him out of context, and Elizabeth herself is left to live with the guilt of sacrificing Jack to ensure that everyone else survives the wrath of the Kraken. And to top it all off, all their hopes in rescuing Jack now rest on the shoulders of a man who they’ve only ever known as evil: Barbossa.
Regardless of how the film lacks a sense of real closure for itself even as it sets up the second half of the larger tale its telling, Dead Man’s Chest is an incredibly ambitious effort, especially for 2006. Including At World’s End, the first two sequels, despite their faults, have an abundance of personality, and there’s a clear divide between them and the fourth and fifth films that’s owed to director Gore Verbinski holding the reins.
The initial trilogy may get increasingly bloated as it rolls along, but his sequels manage to get by on the fact that the passion of Verbinski and everyone involved in bringing them to life is evident in every frame of the films, charming in a way that On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales aren’t because they don’t feel assembled by committee. From the meticulous set design – the swamp lament near the end of the film is a gorgeous example – to the beautiful location shoots to Hans Zimmer’s great score, Dead Man’s Chest is a well-rounded slice of pure entertainment, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that the action is great, the highlight being the three-way fight between Jack, Will, and Norrington that escalates onto a waterwheel rolling through the jungle and onto the beach, where everyone squares off against Jones’ crew.
At its best, Dead Man’s Chest soars, once again scratching that swashbuckling itch that its predecessor did three years earlier, occasionally stumbling but never outright falling flat on its face before finding its footing again and getting right back into action. At its worst, it’s harmless, never squandering the goodwill of Black Pearl by feeling like an abominable miscalculation of a follow-up.
As sequels go, it’s a pretty solid example of how a follow-up should straddle the line of familiarity while being willing to take audiences into new territory. Though it relies on one’s opinion of whether or not At World’s End stuck the landing to feel truly worthwhile, it’s still an enjoyable film in its own right and an unforgettable sequel, one that deserves to be set apart from On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales for being a simple reminder that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was once bursting to the seams with personality.
