Up till today, the only movie in the Pirates franchise that I've seen was Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). so I am coming into Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest completely spoiler free and unbiased. I wasn't sure what to expect other than Disney deciding to rehash everything from the first one and dreading them making it kid-friendly to capitalize on the huge success of the first one. Boy, was I ever surprise at the final product! This was and is awesome. The best thing for me was the visual eye candy in what the Special FX team created.

Loved Davy Jones and his motley crue of sea creatures. It was kinda like watching Lord Of The Rings out in the open seas. And I really liked the back story involving William Turner (Orlando Bloom)and his father Bill Turner (Stellan Skarsgård) and their temporary reunion. I was kind of surprised at how very little of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) was in this one. Other than the opening and then the final confrontation against the Kracken (which by the way was f*cking insanely awesome), Sparrow was more or less a minor character in the 2nd installment. The way he goes out in a "bang" against the Beastie looked way cool! Talk about a hero shot!! I so was not expecting to see Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) return as the hook for the cliffhanger.

I notice that this one was a bit darker than the last, so there wasn't any kid-friendly stuff here. If anything, I'd say that some parts were dark enough that maybe young kids would have to wait a few years before they should be allowed to see it. The do balance some of the dark stuff with some highly imaginative sight gags that tie into the Theme Park Ride and there is a good dose of humore throughout the film as well. I highly recommend this as a Rent, but for me I will definitely be Buying this one for myself.