Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I'm about a week behind on this blog, but today is a Writing Day for Fallout d20 so I reckon I'll be able to do some catch-up.

Last weekend we took in Pirates 2, starring Johnny Depp, that elf from Lord of the Rings, and the future-ex-Mrs. Mical, Kiera Knightly. The movie had been getting mixed reviews: fans seemed to dig it, but critics not so much. They thought the same of the first one, too, so I wasn't too concerned.

I liked it. A lot. And I like it even more now that I've had a week to mull it over.

Pirates 2 is very much an Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future II film. The original was done as a stand-alone in case the series didn't take off. Then the producers decided to make it a trilogy (because all good film stories are told in trilogies), so the second and third films will have to relate to each other quite a bit, all the while referencing the first. Pirates 2 pulled it off. They kept the swashbucking, pulpy fun but turned the gloom up just a tad, and the dialogue tended to turn towards the serious rather than the funny. Which isn't to say I thought it was the bee's knees; there were certainly a few things I'd do differently, but considering what else is out there this year, Pirates 2 is what we've got as far as fantasy-action-adventure-fun, and it serves its role well.

I'll be there for Pirates 3.