Reviews

Yep.

I think the critics have done an "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" on this one. They say it's "overstuffed", "overlong", "over-the-top", over this, over that. I've seen a sequel to surprisingly old-fashioned modern film. It was called "The Mummy Returns". From what I understand, "The Legend of Zorro" is in the same league. What elements from the originals were daring and adventurous were tamed and rushed in the sequels. Not so here. "Dead Man's Chest" is a FAR superior film to "Curse of the Black Pearl", a film that leaves you breathless and giddy with excitement after seeing it, not with a headache.

I think one of the things they got right was to take a leaf out of what Johnny Depp did with the original film. He took a role in a genre that had "black marks" written all over it, a somewhat bland adventure film that he tizzied and teased to the point where he became the focal point of the movie. Add to that the idea of "cursed pirates" and you had a movie. "Dead Man's Chest" takes these elements which worked and runs with them. This film is to pirate movies and seafaring mythology what "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was to Saturday Matinée Serials. And what "Kill Bill" was to 1970s Blaxploitation, Martial Arts films and Spaghetti Westerns (Fascinating concoction, that one). It is sneaky and subversive, as Pirates need to be, and the heroes are the least interesting element in it. And it is rip-roaring, hilarious entertainment from the first frame to the last, the most glorious pure entertainment since the Indiana Jones movies.

And y'know what? I knew it would be that. I just knew it. Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow is the most devilish rogue in the movies in quite some time, a character that was born for the movies, like Indiana Jones, like James Bond, like Mad Max. It's so relieving to have something with such old-fashioned sensibilities as opposed to the quasi-religious tone of a great deal of recent blockbusters (mostly comic book films). What Johnny Depp brought to the original was the sense of ridiculous that he knew the movie had in it. And now everyone else knows that too. What a surprise (SPOILER) to find Commodore Norrington returns in such an unexpected manner! What a trip to have Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Swann engaging in such playful banter with Sparrow! What a gruesome spactacle of Monty Python irreverence is the confection of new creatures, pirates, ships and situations to be found here!

Critics have been spoiled with their blockbusters lately. They've had the gall to be based on great pieces of literature or on deeply mythologised comic book heroes. Great directors like Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer have leant their art-house sensibilities to them and given them more passion and story. This is not a story: This is a thrill-ride. It knows it's a thrill-ride. We know it's a thrill ride. And it succeeds in thrilling us without insulting our intelligence. What did they want? Something deeply felt and serious like a lot of the "major" blockbusters? Or perhaps something that was REALLY dumb like "Fantastic Four" or any of those idiotic rev-head movies. This is old-fashioned, red-blooded entertainment. I think they've forgotten how to deal with movies like this. This is the kind of movie Robert Zemeckis would have directed in the 1980's, and what's wrong with that? What an absolute pure delight! Every blockbuster should be like this one! I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is probably one of the best movies of the year.

I give this movie a nine out of ten. It is one of the best superhero/comic book movies ever made, and do you know why? Because it recognises - unlike a great deal of other comic book films - that it needed to be a fantasy. Not for one moment did I believe that the world it created was real and living, but in the basic terms of fantasy it achieves exactly what it set out to achieve.

I think this is to the detriment of Tim Burton's original "Batman" which I also saw again recently and thought it has aged really poorly. "Batman Begins" is the definitive Batman because it recognised that Batman needed to act like it was based in reality. Dick Tracy doesn't and Warren Beatty takes full advantage of this simple, direct, straightforward material, hamming it up almost to the point of satire.

I say this in terms of all aspects of its direction. The writing is basic and somewhat comedic, the acting is so in-your-face it's like an ensemble realisation of what Jack Nicholson's Joker should have been (Al Pacino in this movie kicks Jack Nicholson's arse!!!!), the design, while much maligned by some, is so crucial to the feel of the film that I can't imagine it any other way. The "man with no face" pastiche was going a little far, but at least that one had an explanation.

Overall, I strongly recommend this film. It works on repeated viewings although I can imagine it being more useful to a film class than to the general public or to the families that it was intended for. It's such an obvious piece of Pop Art that it doesn't warrant the kinds of tactile thrills of a "Spider-Man 2" or a "Batman Begins", also among the best superhero movies ever made. But as a fantasy, this ranks with "The Wizard of Oz" or "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". And I'll say this: It's the movie "Batman" wasn't, but "Batman" was the movie that got the attention this deserved.

Childhood memories, claymation, animated music videos, dinosaurs, evocative dreamscapes... what can I say? I love it!!! There are times when I wish I still had this video. There are also times when I wish my old friends at school liked it as much as I did. You find, kids, that when you become adults, your friends take more of an active interest in speciality pieces like this. Especially if they have taste. The parts I remember best are the song "Mesozoic Mind" and the claymation sequence, which now makes me think of 1980s teenage comedies, even though it centres around pre-teens (who are all unseen; a brilliant touch). So fond if this little piece am I that I have incorporated pieces of the song into a song of my own. Lord knows how successful it will be.