Going to the midnight showing of Deadman's Chest

Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk

This will be a first for me - midnight showing of a movie (Rocky Horror doesn't count)! I am so excited to see the special effects and cinematography. Must not forget the "Stars". Seems like I have been waiting a lifetime for this movie. I will be dressed in my pirate attire and attending the Harkins theater at Superstition Springs in Mesa incase anyone else is going. Oh, of course I will have my POTC backpack with me.
Yo Ho

 

Originally Posted By velo

we're going too, here in Petaluma! Yo Ho!!

 

Originally Posted By AZDLDad

This Old Coat will miss ye!

As we are pointin' the DSNYFAM Clipper tards the west me hardies.

Yo Ho!

 

Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk

SO FUN! People were dressed up and we had a ball!!!
Movie is great. Kind of difficult to follow.

 

Originally Posted By gadzuux

I went to the 'midnight' showing too - only it was at 12:40 and didn't really get started til almost 1am. Still, my local plex was able to fill four theaters.

Short version - looks great, but muddled and overstuffed. EVERY incidental character from the first film shows up in II (right down to the monkey and the dog) and about half a dozen new characters as well. Busy busy. Perhaps too busy.

Much of the time is spent wondering just what's going on and why the story is "here" at any given moment. Elaborate sub-plots are created only to be tossed away without any resolve (for instance the "99 lost souls"). Set pieces like cannibal island don't serve the storyline at all. Will and the crew meet up with jack there for the first time, but then follows at least twenty minutes of schtik (good but unnecessary and overlong) before our heroes finally make their escape and the plot once again lurches forward.

A new key character - the voodoo lady in the swamp - imparts important plot exposition, but does so with a very thick cajun accent and dialect so that much of what she's saying is all but unintelligible.

The laughs are fewer this time around, and mostly physical pratfall type of humor - clowns in the circus, pie in the face type. Jack seems to fall out of character in some scenes, and in others seems half-hearted. A silly walk here or an odd speech inflection there, and then a more sensible grounded 'jack' in between.

The effects and CGI are as good as it gets, the movie looks great. But the story is far too complicated and often unexplained. I loved the first one, and am still looking forward to the third one, but this one is a mixed bag for me - glad I saw it, and I'll certainly rent it for a second viewing when it comes out on DVD, but I doubt I'll be buying it for the collection.

 

Originally Posted By velo

I echo everything GAdzuux said! (thanks, Gadzuux - I'm so tired I wouldn't be as coherant) It really needs some more editing. Loved the nods to the ride, though. I'm glad I went to see it, but probably won't go again while it's in the theater. P.S. Hidden scene at the end of the credits a bit of a let-down for me (maybe 'cause the credits are so long!)

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

Those credits were incredibly long! I waited for the end scene with my friends, because I knew there had to be one, and some of them left half way through, went to the bathroom, came back, and still had to sit through another few minutes of names scrolling by. I'm sure they did a great job, but since when to accountants and their assistants and the second assistants get credits in the movie? It was a little insane.

 

Originally Posted By AladdinAZ

I don't recall seeing the large cursed
black pirate from the 1st movie, in this one, so not every character comes back.

"Elaborate sub-plots are created only to be tossed away without any resolve (for instance the "99 lost souls"). "

I wouldn't say that it's tossed away,
Jack was just trying to buy more time, in negotiating that deal. Jack's primary aim was to get to the "heart of the matter". 99 souls was just a back up.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to say cannibal island doesn't serve the storyline, since it provides another set of circumstances for Jack to "escape from", as well as the rest of the crew. And with the scene at the end of the movie, you know we haven't seen the last of cannibal island.

"But the story is far too complicated and often unexplained."

I seem to recall quite a few people said the same thing about the 1st movie, but that's part of what made the movie good. Not everything is going to be explained immediately, it's revealed in pieces.

The length of the movie was fine.

 

Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk

Hum... I thought this one was funnier than the first! I agree with everything else, although I am going again today.
I can't figure out the heart-shaped medallion that Tia Dahlma had and the music box Davey Jones had. Is Tia his heartbreak? Also, how the heck does Barbossa come back from the dead?

 

Originally Posted By lesmisfan

I loved this movie!!!!!!! I loved seeing all the familiar faces and new ones including the bayou lady, i had no problem understanding her at all, but it could be also i have a leader that has the same accent so i could understand what she was saying. I thought jack was spot on in character in my opinion, they just had to show jack in a different life because his life was more in danger that it was in the first movie. Davie jones was excellent! loved the speacail effects. Mainly its a movie that sets up for the third movie which is why there is some plot holes such as the whole 99 soles deal. I loved the ending, makes me want to see the third one even more!!!!

 

Originally Posted By lesmisfan

also im pretty sure all these unanswered questions such as how is barbossa not dead, and if tia is somehow related to davey jones will be answered in the third movie.

 

Originally Posted By gadzuux

Easy there with tipping one of the biggest surprises in the film - it hasn't even been open a full day yet.

The medallion was just one of several red herrings within the movie. I caught the two shots of it, but nothing ever came of it.

>> 99 souls was just a back up. <<

If that's the case, then now do you explain the next scene where they're actually trying to recruit them? They don't get very far, and then the return of a major character from the first film effectively quashes the lost souls storyline - even davey jones doesn't bring it up again at his next meeting with jack - it's just quietly dropped.

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

It never actually says that he died. It says that he can't go on land, but his heart has been in storage on land for who knows how long. I don't think that the jar of dirt was anything more than a way to distract you and a (failed) way for Jack to keep the heart without people getting suspicious. I'll have to see it again, but I'm sure it will make sense. I also think I missed something about how the compass works, but I could be wrong.

 

Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy

<I'm sure they did a great job, but since when to accountants and their assistants and the second assistants get credits in the movie? It was a little insane.>

Heh...you wouldn't say that i fyou were an accountant's second assistant. ;-)

 

Originally Posted By Inspector 57

I agree that too many events/challenges/major scenes ended up being dead plot lines. Perhaps they'll be tied together in the third film. But I don't think so. I think the 99 souls plot point, for example, was just sloppy writing. And even if not, I don't like the fact that they've left me with this "Huh?!" feeling for a whole year.

Not to mention that there are so many potential bad guys that I can barely remember who did what do whom, let alone get myself worked up to really loath any of them.

Somebody will try to do something bad to Jack, Elizabeth and Will in the third. But, as this film has shown, the filmmakers can pull whatever magic they want out of their butts to make sure that there will be a happy ending. Big tension.

One can only hope there won't be Ewoks in Part III.

 

Originally Posted By gadzuux

Maybe they can work in a role for jar-jar binks - isn't he 'carribean'?

 

Originally Posted By AladdinAZ

>> 99 souls was just a back up. <<

"If that's the case, then now do you explain the next scene where they're actually trying to recruit them? "

Just like I said, Jack had a couple of different angles to come from, either getting the 99 souls OR getting and keeping a grip on Davey's heart.

IF Jack hadn't even made the 99 souls deal, Jack's time was up and would have been permanently part of Davey's crew. BUT Jack still had his wits about and made the deal which bought him additional time needed by Jack to get the key/chest/heart, which Jack did get, but fumbled. And as you mentioned, Jack couldn't find 99 souls, so he failed that way, too. But regardless, Jack temporarily got himself out of indentured servitude, simply by negotiating the 99 souls deal. It was necessary to get more time to get his primary goal of the key/chest/heart.

 

Originally Posted By wendebird

^^ He had 3 days also to do it in. I don't think 3 days had passed since he saw him next.

 

Originally Posted By utahjosh

LOVED it. For me, it started out a little forced and contrived, but as the movie went on it got better and better. Great action scenes, great CG work.

The ending was a perfect set-up for next year's movie.

 

Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk

<Not to mention that there are so many potential bad guys that I can barely remember who did what do whom, let alone get myself worked up to really loath any of them.>

I suggest you see the movie again. It all made sense to me the second time around.

And so glad you guys said something about watching the credits for a final scene. I was so tired the first showing (3am) that I took off without thinking about a scene after the credits.