The lovable shyster and pirate Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) is back for yet another installment of swashbuckling adventure along with Will Turner played by Orlando Bloom and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Like the Matrix, this sequel has been made back-to-back with the third part which will be release later. This film opens rather abruptly with Will and Elizabeth being arrested on their wedding day for helping Jack escape in the last film. But Will is readily offered deal to secure their freedom – he has to find Jack and convince him to hand over his compass to the East India Company. This is no ordinary compass that points north but one that points to what you desire most and to the chest of Davie Jones – The “Dead Man’s Chest”. Jack in the meantime has got his own problems. He owes his soul to Davie Jones (a badass undead Captain Nemo with a squidhead like pirate) and its time to pay up with an eternity of service. And to escape this awful fate he too must find the chest, so he can have a bargaining chip over Jones. All the while a now disgraced ex-commodore Norrington from the last film also returns and he too wants the chest. And just what does this chest contain? Well what does any chest contain?

The film kicks off with the now traditional and stereotypical portrayal of native tribes as cannibalistic brutes and primitive savages from which our heroes have to escape. Putting aside the racist worldview and bad history, it does make some amusing and humorous sequences and also a chance to use the punch-line “Let this be the day that you almost caught Jack Sparrow”. The film in general has some fun swashbuckling (including a three-way swordfight), seafaring, cannon blasting action with the CGI being well concealed within the live action stunts – and also a whole lot of pirate lore. Although the plot is fairly simple, the movie can get slightly complicated and at times long due to all the subplots that are pursued. The film keeps a reasonable balance between its light-hearted nature and the dire jeopardy the protagonists find themselves in, with good humour. But towards the end of the film it does become a bit melodramatic in its attempt to be too much like Lord of the Rings. And when I say towards the end there is a deep sense of irony in that because there is no ending.

Hans Zimmer seems to be Hollywood’s go to guy when it comes to period pieces with epic music for the score, which in this movie, though not the best of his work, does the job. Johnny Depp as Keith Richard, I mean Jack Sparrow, is just as good as he is in the last film. Bloom and Keira Knightly also seem to be in their element, though the character of Elizabeth Swann seemed to have been brought back more for nostalgic factors than and overriding storytelling reasons.

Overall Dead Man’s Chest is another enjoyable Disney flick, not the best ever made and with an annoying ending, but fun howsoever. But what are we to make of the guy suing Disney for stealing his idea about a pirate movie with a ship called Black Pearl and character called Will Turner?