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Review #178 of 365
Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest [PG-13] 150 minutes
WIP™ Scale: (1st review $14.25 + 2nd review $13.50 + 3rd Review $14.50 = $14.00)
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavillions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 3rd Seen: 9 July 2006
Time: 2:20 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Pirates Kev and Bri of Gig Harbor, WA
Soundtrack: Sample and Download the Hans Zimmer soundtrack from 
Official Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Merchandise: Shop at Disneyshopping.com for great toys and collectibles
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Note: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was reviewed in three parts each day the weekend it came out. Part 1 covered the whole movie stem to stern, Part 2 focused on Johnny Depp's performance as Captain Jack Sparrow and a bit on his career and contributions to the profession, and Part 3 narrowed in on the special effects and technology.
Part 3 of 3: Spoiler Alert—plot points may be given away in this review. If you haven't seen the movie, please read reviews 1 and 2 only. Save 3 for after.
Finally, an opportunity to write about what is surely one of the best aspects of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the special effects and stunts. Wow! The third time through the film, I focused most of my attention on the look and feel of this incredible film. Does any of it look fake? Do the special effects work? How'd they do that? I cannot wait for the DVD to see some behind the scenes footage for how they made most of this movie. So, from the beginning.
The Sets
I marvel at the attention to details. Just think about the prisoners walking along that bridge to be thrown in prison—I know easy to forget since it happens so near the start of the film, the prison from which Cap'n Jack escapes via coffin—this entire and elaborate creation was not really necessary to advance the plot, but does give an insight into the incredible world that director Gore Verbinski has created for the film. From there I think of the 'paradise' island where the Black Pearl lands to escape the Kraken and where Jack becomes the King of a tribe of industrious cannibals who have constructed an elaborate craggy hilltop village replete with bridges across chasms and wonderful huts and places to live and grow fruit. This set actually serves as the site for some of the most hilarious parts of the film—more on that in a bit though. Finally, we have the pirate ships themselves at sea. Few movies have ever made me feel as much like I was really on these authentic pirate ships. I almost don't even want to know how they made these scenes of the ships battling etc. Why ruin the magic? Finally, I would like to compliment the map painters. Sure, it's a backdrop. Sure, it might not seem that important. But, every time we returned to the office of Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) we got a preview of the map of the world. At one point he references that the world is getting smaller and the map is getting filled in. The wall map and the official painters are there painting every moment. We forget in this day of global satellite imaging and Mapquest.com®, how it wasn't always so that we knew the geography of our globe and he who had a good map of the world had a tremendous amount of power.
The Sets
I marvel at the attention to details. Just think about the prisoners walking along that bridge to be thrown in prison—I know easy to forget since it happens so near the start of the film, the prison from which Cap'n Jack escapes via coffin—this entire and elaborate creation was not really necessary to advance the plot, but does give an insight into the incredible world that director Gore Verbinski has created for the film. From there I think of the 'paradise' island where the Black Pearl lands to escape the Kraken and where Jack becomes the King of a tribe of industrious cannibals who have constructed an elaborate craggy hilltop village replete with bridges across chasms and wonderful huts and places to live and grow fruit. This set actually serves as the site for some of the most hilarious parts of the film—more on that in a bit though. Finally, we have the pirate ships themselves at sea. Few movies have ever made me feel as much like I was really on these authentic pirate ships. I almost don't even want to know how they made these scenes of the ships battling etc. Why ruin the magic? Finally, I would like to compliment the map painters. Sure, it's a backdrop. Sure, it might not seem that important. But, every time we returned to the office of Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) we got a preview of the map of the world. At one point he references that the world is getting smaller and the map is getting filled in. The wall map and the official painters are there painting every moment. We forget in this day of global satellite imaging and Mapquest.com®, how it wasn't always so that we knew the geography of our globe and he who had a good map of the world had a tremendous amount of power.
"…the technology, special effects, sets, costumes, make-up, and stunt sequences in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were among the most exciting and innovative used in a major motion picture in a very long time. Gore Verbinski has proven that others too can create mythical lands and creatures that transport audiences to worlds they've never seen and stories they've not yet heard."
The Stunts
The film was a stuntperson's dream, wasn't it? Of course, with digital CGI, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell when stuntpersons are in use or not. We used to know because we would only see the back of the person's head. Now, they can digitally insert the actors face making the correct facial expression frame by frame into the scene. We also have a growing number of actors who want to and demand to do many of the stunts themselves despite insurance risks etc. Well, in any case there are four stunt sequences I would like to address that I thought were either nostalgic or down-right amazing good fun. First, what kind of decent pirate movie doesn't have a guy sliding down a sail and having to cut through it with a knife to slow his descent? Not this one, this one we are given the nostalgic scene of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) leaping from mast to sail and sliding down, out comes the knife, and the rest is history. Of course, the same would be true for a good bar fight, which we get on the Isle of Tortuga along with a classic bottle-over-the-head smashing delivered by Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Both of these scenes were short and sweet. Next, and probably one of my favorite parts of the movie in general and certainly the most hilarious with homage to the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops we have Cap'n Jack Swallow bound securely to a pole set up to be roasted so that his god-like spirit might be released after consumption by his tribe. Suddenly, he is abandoned by the tribe as they flee to investigate an impending escape by prisoners. The fire, is about to start, and he has moments to get free. In a maneuver that would make Cathy Rigby drool, he flexes his body and eventually pops the pole off the holders landing him back on terra firma with a bonk. He manages to unbind his hands and feet, but the rest of his body will take too long. So, he does what any logical pirate bound to a pole would do, he runs off attached to the pole straight into a pile of coconuts and the food preparation area of two tribespeople who then try to capture him by throwing fruit which gets skewered onto his pole turning him into a human shishkabob. This is followed by him pole vaulting over a chasm and nearly making it to safety. Alas, the fruit comes back to haunt him with its weight on the pole, and he falls down into the chasm. The pole braces his fall as it gets stuck between the walls of the chasm causing him to unwind on the rope and dangle momentarily below. The entire sequence was astounding. I laughed for ten minutes sitting here thinking about how on earth they thought of this. Meanwhile, Will Turner and the crew of the Black Pearl have been secured inside spherical cages and suspended over a chasm. Watching them get their momentum up and swing the cages to the wall so they can climb up and escape was another hilarious stunt treat. If you thought zorbing was a new invention, wake up. Apparently pirates were doing this a century ago. Just as their caged ball full of pirates gets to the top of the cliff, they roll down the hill and through the jungle. At one point they have to pick up the cage and run to escape the tribespeople in hot pursuit--hilarious good fun! Finally, there is a three-way sword fight between Will Turner, Cap'n Jack, and the former Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) for possession of the Dead Man's Chest. This sword fight goes to a new extreme when Jack escapes the fray leaving Norrington and Turner to duel it out on top of a water wheel that, due to their collective weight and the aged, rotted wood, breaks off and begins to roll away. Like Shanghai acrobats they sword fight away atop the rolling wheel which eventually crashes over Jack trapping him inside as it rolls along like a hamster in a wheel. Again, both of these entire sequences were so very clever and inventive. They truly revive and elevate the slapstick comedy routines of the former masters of the 1920s through 40s to a new level.
The Costumes and Make-up
Pirates films require great costumes and this one was no exception. From Cap'n Jack's classic pirate hat to the bountiful wedding dress of Elizabeth Swann, both of which play special roles in the film, the costume people spared no attention to details. They truly made the characters look authentic and dashing. Pirates, also, have a generally unclean, nearly filthy look about them, and the make-up artists had their work cut out for them on this film. Not just because of this, but because Davy Jones has a crew of morbid, zombie-esque men with any manner of sea-creature appendages and hybrids. We have one guy with the head of a hammerhead shark, one that is part sea fan, and of course Will's father Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) who has a starfish embedded in the side of his head. Creating this fantastic crew must have been a painstaking process for the artists as well as the actors, but the final result is amazing.
Davy Jones & The Kraken
By far the most grandiose special effects and make-up work, however, went into the making of Davy Jones and his beastie, the Kraken. I, for one, wish they had kept visuals on both out of all press material for they would be a wonderfully unexpected surprise and there was no reason to give these secrets away. Davy Jones has a hybrid head himself melding man and octopus except this is more like a 'dodecapus' with many more than 8 legs. After seeing the film 3 times, I still have no clue how his face was made. I assume it was a mask with some CGI work and some robotic prosthetics, but I have no idea. It was so fierce how they made this work. The Kraken, meanwhile, is a mythological, gigantic sea octopus/squid that Davy Jones controls using a sonic boom delivered by his ship. Somehow, the Kraken knows when it detects this boom to attack nearby ships and not the Flying Dutchman. The first attack we see, the Kraken simply implodes the tiny ship from below. It is a horrifying scene to behold. Later ships, however, the Kraken must attack first with long tentacles to grab members of the crew and then by wrapping tentacles around the ships and plunging them into the sea. Having narrowly escaped one Kraken attack, Will Turner is bound and determined to save as many lives as he can when it attacks the Black Pearl in an attempt to smoke him and Cap'n Jack out. Certainly, the tentacles of this beast were all CGI, I have no idea how else they could have made them. In any case, the Kraken is a remarkable CGI creation.
Summary
Overall, the technology, special effects, sets, costumes, make-up, and stunt sequences in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were among the most exciting and innovative used in a major motion picture in a very long time. They really enhanced this film turning it into a spectacle for the imagination. These were all A#1 in caliber and quality. The bar has been set very high for future films to try to achieve this level of wonder. Peter Jackson really got the ball rolling when he created the LOTR Trilogy and King Kong. Gore Verbinski has proven that others too can create mythical lands and creatures that transport audiences to worlds they've never seen and stories they've not yet heard. The end result will show in the box office numbers which are sure to be the best of year. I went to see, as you now know, PoC:DMC three times this weekend. Every time, the showing I wanted to see was sold out. That's right, "SOLD OUT". Every theatre I sat in was packed to the brim. While I know a lot of people are very disappointed to find out that this is the middle of a trilogy, and they will have to wait until next summer to find out what happens to old Cap'n Jack Sparrow as Elizabeth and Will Turner travel to the ends of the earth with Captain Barbarosa's crew. Still, they have to admit they've got the satisfaction of seeing one very good movie in the middle.
The film was a stuntperson's dream, wasn't it? Of course, with digital CGI, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell when stuntpersons are in use or not. We used to know because we would only see the back of the person's head. Now, they can digitally insert the actors face making the correct facial expression frame by frame into the scene. We also have a growing number of actors who want to and demand to do many of the stunts themselves despite insurance risks etc. Well, in any case there are four stunt sequences I would like to address that I thought were either nostalgic or down-right amazing good fun. First, what kind of decent pirate movie doesn't have a guy sliding down a sail and having to cut through it with a knife to slow his descent? Not this one, this one we are given the nostalgic scene of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) leaping from mast to sail and sliding down, out comes the knife, and the rest is history. Of course, the same would be true for a good bar fight, which we get on the Isle of Tortuga along with a classic bottle-over-the-head smashing delivered by Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Both of these scenes were short and sweet. Next, and probably one of my favorite parts of the movie in general and certainly the most hilarious with homage to the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops we have Cap'n Jack Swallow bound securely to a pole set up to be roasted so that his god-like spirit might be released after consumption by his tribe. Suddenly, he is abandoned by the tribe as they flee to investigate an impending escape by prisoners. The fire, is about to start, and he has moments to get free. In a maneuver that would make Cathy Rigby drool, he flexes his body and eventually pops the pole off the holders landing him back on terra firma with a bonk. He manages to unbind his hands and feet, but the rest of his body will take too long. So, he does what any logical pirate bound to a pole would do, he runs off attached to the pole straight into a pile of coconuts and the food preparation area of two tribespeople who then try to capture him by throwing fruit which gets skewered onto his pole turning him into a human shishkabob. This is followed by him pole vaulting over a chasm and nearly making it to safety. Alas, the fruit comes back to haunt him with its weight on the pole, and he falls down into the chasm. The pole braces his fall as it gets stuck between the walls of the chasm causing him to unwind on the rope and dangle momentarily below. The entire sequence was astounding. I laughed for ten minutes sitting here thinking about how on earth they thought of this. Meanwhile, Will Turner and the crew of the Black Pearl have been secured inside spherical cages and suspended over a chasm. Watching them get their momentum up and swing the cages to the wall so they can climb up and escape was another hilarious stunt treat. If you thought zorbing was a new invention, wake up. Apparently pirates were doing this a century ago. Just as their caged ball full of pirates gets to the top of the cliff, they roll down the hill and through the jungle. At one point they have to pick up the cage and run to escape the tribespeople in hot pursuit--hilarious good fun! Finally, there is a three-way sword fight between Will Turner, Cap'n Jack, and the former Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) for possession of the Dead Man's Chest. This sword fight goes to a new extreme when Jack escapes the fray leaving Norrington and Turner to duel it out on top of a water wheel that, due to their collective weight and the aged, rotted wood, breaks off and begins to roll away. Like Shanghai acrobats they sword fight away atop the rolling wheel which eventually crashes over Jack trapping him inside as it rolls along like a hamster in a wheel. Again, both of these entire sequences were so very clever and inventive. They truly revive and elevate the slapstick comedy routines of the former masters of the 1920s through 40s to a new level.
The Costumes and Make-up
Pirates films require great costumes and this one was no exception. From Cap'n Jack's classic pirate hat to the bountiful wedding dress of Elizabeth Swann, both of which play special roles in the film, the costume people spared no attention to details. They truly made the characters look authentic and dashing. Pirates, also, have a generally unclean, nearly filthy look about them, and the make-up artists had their work cut out for them on this film. Not just because of this, but because Davy Jones has a crew of morbid, zombie-esque men with any manner of sea-creature appendages and hybrids. We have one guy with the head of a hammerhead shark, one that is part sea fan, and of course Will's father Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) who has a starfish embedded in the side of his head. Creating this fantastic crew must have been a painstaking process for the artists as well as the actors, but the final result is amazing.
Davy Jones & The Kraken
By far the most grandiose special effects and make-up work, however, went into the making of Davy Jones and his beastie, the Kraken. I, for one, wish they had kept visuals on both out of all press material for they would be a wonderfully unexpected surprise and there was no reason to give these secrets away. Davy Jones has a hybrid head himself melding man and octopus except this is more like a 'dodecapus' with many more than 8 legs. After seeing the film 3 times, I still have no clue how his face was made. I assume it was a mask with some CGI work and some robotic prosthetics, but I have no idea. It was so fierce how they made this work. The Kraken, meanwhile, is a mythological, gigantic sea octopus/squid that Davy Jones controls using a sonic boom delivered by his ship. Somehow, the Kraken knows when it detects this boom to attack nearby ships and not the Flying Dutchman. The first attack we see, the Kraken simply implodes the tiny ship from below. It is a horrifying scene to behold. Later ships, however, the Kraken must attack first with long tentacles to grab members of the crew and then by wrapping tentacles around the ships and plunging them into the sea. Having narrowly escaped one Kraken attack, Will Turner is bound and determined to save as many lives as he can when it attacks the Black Pearl in an attempt to smoke him and Cap'n Jack out. Certainly, the tentacles of this beast were all CGI, I have no idea how else they could have made them. In any case, the Kraken is a remarkable CGI creation.
Summary
Overall, the technology, special effects, sets, costumes, make-up, and stunt sequences in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were among the most exciting and innovative used in a major motion picture in a very long time. They really enhanced this film turning it into a spectacle for the imagination. These were all A#1 in caliber and quality. The bar has been set very high for future films to try to achieve this level of wonder. Peter Jackson really got the ball rolling when he created the LOTR Trilogy and King Kong. Gore Verbinski has proven that others too can create mythical lands and creatures that transport audiences to worlds they've never seen and stories they've not yet heard. The end result will show in the box office numbers which are sure to be the best of year. I went to see, as you now know, PoC:DMC three times this weekend. Every time, the showing I wanted to see was sold out. That's right, "SOLD OUT". Every theatre I sat in was packed to the brim. While I know a lot of people are very disappointed to find out that this is the middle of a trilogy, and they will have to wait until next summer to find out what happens to old Cap'n Jack Sparrow as Elizabeth and Will Turner travel to the ends of the earth with Captain Barbarosa's crew. Still, they have to admit they've got the satisfaction of seeing one very good movie in the middle.
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Review-lite [150-word cap]
Who would have thought the Disneyland ride, "Pirates of the Caribbean" would spawn a trilogy of fantastic films? [That's right, trilogy! Production for Pirates 3 has already begun.] Director Gore Verbinski took this script steeped from stem to stern with mythology of Pirates and created an historically interesting film with great characters, actors, story, and special effects. You are bound to entertained. The film begins just as Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) are about to marry. They are arrested and ultimately blackmailed into seeking out Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Meanwhile, Jack has stumbled across new trouble of his own as Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) is after his very soul. Only unlocking the Dead Man's Chest can save him and reunite Swann and Turner. Dead Man's Chest will be THE hit of the summer appealing to audiences of all ages with a frolicking, daring, Jolly Roger spirit.
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