Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Film)

This was the big summer blockbuster I was really looking forward and was hoping it would be as good as the first, even though they were filming parts 2 and 3 back to back. It felt like they had a really solid idea for a movie and a half and had the choice of either trimming the story or padding the film out. I guess they decided to go the second route. Whole chunks of the movie could have been dropped with none worse for the wear. I left the theater confused about what was going on and didn't understand why they did what they did. At least with the first one, I understand how characters got from point A to B and the reasons why. I very much admired the craft of script and thought at the time it was as solid of a movie as you could get (still thought it went on a tad long). With this one, it felt the filmmakers had the foreknowledge of a third movie, so they decided not to explain as much because it'll all make sense once you see the third part. This approach is hit or miss. There's only been a handful of times when parts 2 and 3 were filmed concurrently. I can think of Superman I and II, Back to the Future 2 and 3, the Lord of the Rings saga, and Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. Hmmm...let's think about this a minute. All in all, with the exception of the Rings (and that was based on books), not an impressive list. I think I'll end up seeing it again thinking perhaps I missed something, but all in all it felt like I got to the treasure chest and all I found was something shiny and incomplete.