POTC 2: Dead Man's chest reviews! No Spoilers please!

[mssparrrow]

Hi,

As the opening is only hours away..I thought I'd start a review thread. No Spoilers Please! Some of us can't get to the theaters right away & we don't want the experienced ruined. Also everyone is entitled to their opinion but try to post the both good & bad points of the film. Enjoy!

[Muushka]

I tried to talk my husband into going tonight at 11:59, but he declined!:ROTFL:

But then again, the last time we were jazzed to see the sequel to a great movie we were sorely disappoinnted, so maybe this way we won't jinx POTC!
Can't wait to read the reviews.

PS the lousy sequel we saw was Matrix Reloaded.:bugeyed:

[DarthGoofy]

I thought it was very good. There were some scenes that they could have cut down a little. That being said, they could not have done a better job wetting your appetite for the next film. I was ready to watch it right then.

[carolina_yankee]

We just got back from POTC today. We say an early showing on a Digital projection screen at King of Prussia. It's my favorite theatre, and I was so hoping for POTC on their IMax screen (which is how we've seen every Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings). Sadly, Superman still hogs the screen. The DLP was crisp with great sound, but I'm not sure I noticed an advantage over a regular screen. Maybe I'm a little spoiled from drooling over the plasma screens in the Sony store before seeing the movie. OK, you didn't want a review of the theatre, but the movie . . . :ROTFL:

Enjoyable. Not great. Not bad. Some fantastic swashbuckling scenes and really good effects. I'm a little annoyed at whichever reviewer said the effects were second rate. Since the movie ends on an unresolved note (which many reviewers have mentioned, so no spoiler), I compare it to the Two Towers. It was a good film, but not as satisfying as Fellowship of the Ring or Return of the King. I think you have to be a POTC fan to really like the movie.

I agree with the reviewers who say there are too many plots and subplots. Any 2 or 3 would have made a great movie, but there are just so many twists and turns it's hard to keep up. I like the additional scenes incorporated from the ride. The jailhouse dog gets a meatier role this time (and be sure to stay through the credits, though it's predictable).

As an unresolved movie, it should have been closer to 2 hours than 2:20. I think that would have gone a long way.

The movie wasn't a waste of time or even a disappointment (since I'd been forwarned by the mixed reviews), but I'd watch the first one again before seeing this one again. Actually, I think I'd see Cars again first (which I really liked). Sigh. I was hoping I could be more positive but this is just being honest.

Dirk

[mickeyndvcfan]

I thought it was very good. There were some scenes that they could have cut down a little. That being said, they could not have done a better job wetting your appetite for the next film. I was ready to watch it right then.

I agree DG



carolina_yankee....We were at King of Prussia today for the 10:30 show.

[Colorado Belle]

Okay...I am getting ready to head out for th e9:30pm showing. We have tickets but will have to line up a half hour in advance to get seats. (and drat I do have my favorite seats which allow me to hang my leg over the bar that backs the wheelchair section.

I'm taking margaritas. with a grand marnier float. Nothing like a little buzz before watching Captain Jack's sweetie swagger!

I think I'll pop in the POC I DVC right now and watch it (again) prior tot he movie.
I will post a review when I get home!

[Colorado Belle]

OK....here's my take:

Liked it, but not as much as POC 1. The original was just 'perfect' in that I wouldn't change a thing about it.

I understand all the comments made above. For me, the action was fine, the story line was there, tho not so crisp and simple as in POC 1. Captain Jack was still HOTHOTHOT, Will was still true, and Elizabeth...well, she was a wee bit naughty at the end wasn't she? Perhaps they tried to bring too much into Part II....too much hyperbole of action, characters etc...and then the pure simplicity got a little lost.

But I certainl enjoyed it! Drank a LOT of margaritas, waited for the end and the dog...but that was a LONGGGGGGGGG list of credits!!!!!

I liked that in our little community we probably had 20 or 30 people dressed up as pirates...Thought that was cool.

And now, after midnight, I think I'll go and watch the rest of POC I!!!!!!!

[carolina_yankee]

Those were very long credits! I'm glad you had a good time, and admire you're nocturnal stamina!

BTW - Mickeyndvcfan: we were at the 12:45 at King of Prussia. Those are our favorite theatres, even though we've moved to Trenton!

Dirk

[jiggerj]

OK....here's my take:

Liked it, but not as much as POC 1. The original was just 'perfect' in that I wouldn't change a thing about it.

I understand all the comments made above. For me, the action was fine, the story line was there, tho not so crisp and simple as in POC 1. Captain Jack was still HOTHOTHOT, Will was still true, and Elizabeth...well, she was a wee bit naughty at the end wasn't she? Perhaps they tried to bring too much into Part II....too much hyperbole of action, characters etc...and then the pure simplicity got a little lost.

But I certainl enjoyed it! Drank a LOT of margaritas, waited for the end and the dog...but that was a LONGGGGGGGGG list of credits!!!!!

I liked that in our little community we probably had 20 or 30 people dressed up as pirates...Thought that was cool.

And now, after midnight, I think I'll go and watch the rest of POC I!!!!!!!


What!!!! Miss Swan a wee bit naughty???;) Hmmm...this is going to be interesting!

Took my favorite little man out for a over the top, prepping for Pirates, special dinner last night...POTC happy meals at McDonalds!! :ROTFL:

So he has his Pirates bandana and I have my pirate Mickey ears to wear to this afternoons showing- :crazy:

Then seafood on the grill and some Pina Coladas (but whys the rum gone?) to wind up the day-

Any memorable one liners in POTC 2?

[jeannie143]

Saw it last night with the family, it was great! Unbelievable graphics and great acting as expected. You will not be disappointed. Looking forward to seeing it again soon. :bouncingp

[DisneyNutMary]

I liked it, and I did not think there were too many plot lines (as the reviews said)
It wasn't as good as PotC: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but I think this movie was mainly to set the story for the third movie.
As with both Star Wars Trilogies, the first and third movies were much better than the second- I hope PotC is following that route.

[lenshanem]

OK, I didn't stay thru the credits! Can someone PM me and tell me what happened to the dog??? I think I can guess, though...

Thanks!

[idratherbeinwdw]

Liked it very much, although I do agree there were too many subplots. Sometimes a scene would end and another one would start and the seque was hard to understand. But I still had a great time, Captain Jack looked great and seemed to be having a ball. I thought the special effects were quite believeable and was impressed with Davy Jones and his "fishy" crew. I didn't think the effects were the least bit cheesy, I loved them. I was there with my 2 daughters, one with her boyfriend, and my nephew and his girlfriend, and everyone liked it.

My only issue is probably a personal one. I am hard of hearing, and I found a bunch of the dialogue difficult to hear. Davy Jones had a weird accent, and a lot of the fight scenes had such loud backround sounds that I couldn't understand the actor's words. I thought it might have been the sound system in my local theater, but my kids hear fine and they had trouble too--albeit not as much as I did. And they said the sound quality in the theater was good. I used special headphones for hearing impaired, and usually that works perfectly for me, but not this time. I'm going to try to see it again in a theater with a more advanced sound system and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise I'll have to wait for the DVD with closed captioning to be able to catch all the dialogue.

Edited after reading shan's post (the one after this one)- I barely understood a word the voodoo lady said. I'd catch a word here and there, but basically I had to guess what she was saying.

[lenshanem]

Did anyone understand the voodoo lady? I swear I didn't understand a word she said the first time they went to see her...

[Lisa]

We haven't gone to see it yet but are planning to if/when we get a babysitter. I have a question..... My DD 10 has watched POTC 1 at home on DVD - one of the two PG-13 movies she has seen - and she is begging to go with us. My first response is to have her wait until DVD and watch it on the small screen. Any comments from those who have viewed it on what makes it PG-13 - sex, violence? For a PG-13 movie they are sure marketing it to the little ones!

[ErinC]

DH and I went to the 9:55 show last night. Mar, your ears may not be great, but I had a hard time understanding the words sometimes too. I did understand most of the Voo-doo lady...maybe I've been around too many Cajuns from Louisiana!:ROTFL: The movie was just okay in my book. I'm not a dark or scary movie fan to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised when I loved the first movie, but not pleasantly surprised with Pirates II. It was long, and I agree with the above posters about too many sub plots. DH and I were still discussing what the point of some of the characters were on the way home.:confused: Having said all this, I will of course see the next movie, frankly I feel like I have to, but I'm not excited about it. I should have watched the 1st again as a refresher before we went. If you haven't seen the 2nd yet, be sure and brush up on the 1st again. As I walked out of the movie theatre during the credits, I wondered if I was missing something, apparently I did (I should have known better having just seen cars in the last couple of weeks), somebody PM me and tell me what happened. My last comment will be aimed at other parents, will you let your young kids see this movie? DD10 has been talking about it. I let her watch the 1st when it came out on DVD. I have real reservations about letting her watch the 2nd anytime soon. DD (almost 7) wouldn't sleep for weeks, she spooks way to easily, no way am I going to let her see it.

[ErinC]

We haven't gone to see it yet but are planning to if/when we get a babysitter. I have a question..... My DD 10 has watched POTC 1 at home on DVD - one of the two PG-13 movies she has seen - and she is begging to go with us. My first response is to have her wait until DVD and watch it on the small screen. Any comments from those who have viewed it on what makes it PG-13 - sex, violence? For a PG-13 movie they are sure marketing it to the little ones!


Lisa, we were posting at the same time. If I was you, I would wait. Then you can judge afterward. If I do let DD10 watch it, it will be at home on the "little" screen. It is pretty violent, and some of those characters are really creepy looking. I'll PM you more details.

[idratherbeinwdw]

We haven't gone to see it yet but are planning to if/when we get a babysitter. I have a question..... My DD 10 has watched POTC 1 at home on DVD - one of the two PG-13 movies she has seen - and she is begging to go with us. My first response is to have her wait until DVD and watch it on the small screen. Any comments from those who have viewed it on what makes it PG-13 - sex, violence? For a PG-13 movie they are sure marketing it to the little ones!

They say the f word and the s word at least once each. There are a couple of sexual remarks, but nothing really risque. As for violence, if the skeletons in the first movie didn't bother your 10 year old I don't think this one is any more violent. There's certainly no blood gushing or anything like that, and all the violence is very cartoon-ish IMHO.

[carolina_yankee]

I don't remember the f word or the s word. I think f gets an instant R rating, anyway.

For me, the violence is the most questionable in the movie for younger kids. One of the early scenes is especially grusesomes with birds pecking at corpses. That stuff doesn't bother me, but a young child could be quite upset. Early on, there's good humor to alleviate any scary tension, but the humor seems to evaporate later on as the whole film takes a darker tone.

Dirk

[idratherbeinwdw]

I don't remember the f word or the s word. I think f gets an instant R rating, anyway.

For me, the violence is the most questionable in the movie for younger kids. One of the early scenes is especially grusesomes with birds pecking at corpses. That stuff doesn't bother me, but a young child could be quite upset. Early on, there's good humor to alleviate any scary tension, but the humor seems to evaporate later on as the whole film takes a darker tone.

Dirk

I checked with my kids before my original response, as with my hearing being bad I don't trust myself alone. I actually did not hear the f word myself, it was older daughter who said she did. But all three of us agreed there was at least one S, unless we all heard it wrong.

I do agree regarding some of the scenes being gruesome, but the OP said her child had seen the first one, and I didn't think Dead Man's Chest was any worse gore-wise.

[Colorado Belle]

I didn't hear f or s and I am pretty sure that I caught most everything. True, both Davy and the voodoo gal had hard to understand accents, but for some reason (maybe the margaritas???) I seemed to hear it all clearly...more so that in POC I, which when I watched it for the upteenth time last night, I STILL heard funny little things that I missed heretofore.

PG13: no sex, very little sexual inneundo....and what there was of that was extremely funny and in some of the 6 different trailers that are online.

PG13: violence. I agree that the crows picking out eyeballs was kinda gruesome (tho it was fairly fast and dark, no contrast....so depending on your child, it might be less bothersome to a child used to makebelieve that an adult who tends to see things more realistically. I also agree that most of the kraken stuff was 'cartoonish' enough to be funny to kids. What I loved about the first movie was that nothing in it was dark....even scary skeletons come to life...it was all treated with humor. Less so in this one, and that is one of the reasons why it didn't seem 'as good' to me. Not sure why they tried to introduce 'darker' stuff; would be interesting to ask about that...and to let them know if it wasn't appealing to you.

All in all, if this were 15 years ago when my child was 'little' I would take her.
And I know she would have loved it. (But remember, my kid went on Space Mountain at age 3) Here's how to make the movie less scary for kids: take a big group of same age kids with you. Let them dress up like pirates. Warn them that there are some scary special effects but that they aren't REAL . And even in this movie, after a scary scene there seems to be a funny scene (especially with the crow scene).

I know I'll go watch it again before the DVD comes out. As for 'are there any good lines?" question, yes there are...a lot of them relating back to POC1.

I'll PM about the dog...but for everyone, you have to stay to the very end of the credits to see it....and the credits are veryvery long. Is it worth it? Not really, but for me, I didn't have anything better to do and it certainly let the parking lot empty!!!:laughing:

[mickeyndvcfan]

Those were very long credits! I'm glad you had a good time, and admire you're nocturnal stamina!

BTW - Mickeyndvcfan: we were at the 12:45 at King of Prussia. Those are our favorite theatres, even though we've moved to Trenton!

Dirk

I thought that we drove far to go to the movies. We live just south of the Philly airport. How long does it take you to get there? Do you make it a day trip just to go to the movies? I do understand about going there because it is our favorite theater also.

[carolina_yankee]

We always went to King of Prussia when we lived in the Germantown neighborhood. There were no theatres nearby that even remotely reminded me of the quality newer theatres from North Carolina, or even Rhode Island. When KoP opened up, we were happy!

Anyway, we have a very good megaplex about 10 minutes away, but they don't have digital project or iMax (and their seats don't rock). So, if know we'll be shopping (or at least want a Costco run), we'll go to KoP for the movies, a nice meal, and dropping bucks (Can we say "Apple Store").

Over the last 3 1/2 years, we've gone frequently enough that I still get my haircut by the same person (who knows how my strange part works). So, it's not that I drive 45 minutes to see a movie, it's that I drive 45 minutes for a haircut!! (And I'm a guy.)

For others, King of Prussia is one of the largest shopping malls on the Eastern seabord, from standard mall stores to some very nice high-end boutiques.

Dirk

[kathleena]

Whenever I go to a movie - especially a sequel - I try to view it on it's own merits and not be caught up in whether the first was better or another like it (titanic vs Pearl harbor) was better. The thought in my head is always - were they successful in doing what they set out to do?

For POC-DMC - I think they were. The story is a continuation - Jack is free and Elizabeth and Will are now in peril. Will goes after Jack, Jack does his usual double trick, then Elizabeth goes after Will. In the end, they are all together. Was not the first movie the same type of plot, except Elizabeth and Jack were reversed?

And in their travels - they meet lots of other characters. The East India Trading Guy, the cannibals, the voodoo lady, the crew of ship that Elizabeth stowed away on and Davy Jones and his crew. Each one of these encounters set up or advanced the story line. To me, they all belonged and were woven in well. Or some of them added humor and action.

And they come together in the end. Each of the stories came to it's own end for the movie (yes even the dog!). Yes, there were stories of each character - but there are in a lot of movies. I think the interest lies in developing them and bringing them all full circle and tying them together.

Well, at least for me, that's what they did.

Although I didn't understand every word the voodoo lady said, I definately understood her intent. The garbled speech was part of the character. I would have liked to have heard it all, but I think I like her better with the garbling speech. Kind of like the men of the full monty not being the same if they spoke understandable British English. They would not have been the same characters if they had an uppercrust accent.

Well, anyway that's just my take. I think they set out to make an entertaining story about the adventures of Jack, Elizabeth and Will. And think they were very successful. I'm really looking forward to the third one!

JMHO!

[jiggerj]

Just got back from seeing POTC 2-

What FUN!!!!

The theatre was not packed at all and I had went out and purchased tix in advance :hammer:

I actually liked some of the effects in POTC2 BETTER than POTC 1- Davy Jones and crew are soooo cool!

I agree that there were just too many story lines to follow- or maybe I just wasnt paying as close attention when Cpt. Jack was on the screen- ;) As well as if you didnt see POTC1 some of the humor would go over your head-

My 6 yr. old son sat thru the entire flick including after credits (cute) and he was fine with the length of the movie-

All in all- a fun time was had and Johnny was delicious and Will Turner was scrumptious as well-

Whatever you do ...DO NOT FIND OUT WHAT THE CLIFFHANGER IS...NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING!! it will be worth the anticipation! :D

Dont touch my dirt- ;)

[lenshanem]

So I guess I'm the only one that thought the scene with Jack and the Kraken looked awful? When Jack's back was turned and the Kraken came up behind him I thought the special effects were terrible! DH and I both just looked at each other.

[disneyhappy]

Saw it with my family and it was a great movie. We all enjoyed it. I think I need to see it again

[Colorado Belle]

Shan...do you mean at the very end? I kind of thought of the Kraken as a cartoon type beastie who does the bidding of Davy Jones. So the fact that it looked like an overgrown octopus didn't faze me. I can't believe anyone was 'scared' of the Kraken and I recall an interview with Depp when he said his least favorite scene was getting slimed...that it was just gross.

While I loved the special effects of the skeletons, and liked looking at DAvy Jones moving face, none of the other special effects did much for me, but then I'm there for Captain Jack...he is special enough for me:ROTFL:

[Leftcoaster]

While I loved the special effects of the skeletons, and liked looking at DAvy Jones moving face, none of the other special effects did much for me, but then I'm there for Captain Jack...he is special enough for me:ROTFL:



He produces his own special effect for you?:tapedshut

[Colorado Belle]

In a word: Aye

[ErinC]

Shan, I agree with you, I thought some of the scene's with Kraken looked really cheesy.

[Rozzie]

just back, a quick take from me.

I will be glad when it comes out on DVD, so I can see some subtitles. I know the accents were true to character, great characters, but I found myself having a hard time understanding. Actually I wished I had a POTC CliffNotes with a flashlight in the theater. I agree with Erin, I should have watched POTC 1 right before seeing the second one.

My big issue is I am going to be quite upset if they create a love story between Elizabeth and Capt Jack. (MsSparrow cover your ears!) I am a huge Will Turner girl. :yes: I just think he is hot hot hot. JMHO, I thought he made a pretty hot Elf too, so don't mind me. :hyper:

One thing Mr Rozzie and I did agree on---it was darker in our opinion than the first. I was spooked by the bird eye thing. I should have stayed through the credits, because I was not happy about the dog. I did like how the ride had a lot of scenes, especially the wild bar scene.

Just my 2 cents. Good but not great. I like a simplier story myself. But I am a simple girl. ;)

[mssparrrow]

Hi,

Ms. Sparrow is a VERY HAPPY WIFE/MISTRESS, whatever. I went yesterday @ 4:15 p.m. and hardly anyone was there. My boys were so adorable & sexy!!! The storyline was great. It dragged just a little but not so that we noticed. Liked how they focused more and Will & Elizabeth more too. All three did an awesome job. I am angry with Elizabeth a little but I have to admit my Jack is hard to resist most of the time!! I love how my Jack walks, talks & LOOKS! Will looked yummy too!! UMM..I may have to cheat on Jack a little! It was just a FUN ride that should not be taken too seriously!!! Also I would suggest see the 1st one before you go cause there is a lot of connection between them! Going again soon! Can't wait for my Jack & the Pearl to be brought back in POTC 3: World's End!