Release Date: July 7, 2006
Watch Date: April 6, 2025
“Captain Jack Sparrow has a blood debt to pay: he owes his soul to ghastly Davy Jones unless he can cheat death – and eternal damnation – by seizing the fabled ‘Dead Man’s Chest.’ Tremble in terror as the mighty ‘Kraken’ roars from the ocean depths to split planks, crush hulls and snap bones.”
Alright, did “The Curse of the Black Pearl” need a sequel? No, it did not. Unlike so many, many, countless adventure and action films that feel they need to not quite totally resolve the story just in case their movie is popular enough to warrant a sequel “Curse” told a whole and complete story. It said everything it needed to say.
Luckily for everyone involved, and what would turn out to be lucky for the general moviegoing population as well, pirates tend to continue to go on adventures. And, there’s a lot of super natural lore associated with pirates. So if, let’s say, your movie was exceedingly popular and you had created a cast of characters that would become immediately iconic, well then, you could probably crank out as many of these as you liked, couldn’t you?
And gosh darn them if Disney didn’t try.
But let’s not talk about where the franchise is going to go. Let’s talk about the trilogy. The trilogy that really had to find a way to be part of the first movie, added backstory without actually telling you any of it, and made an extremely compelling overarching plot line.
First, let’s talk about how “Dead Man’s Chest” really ties in with “Curse” because I feel like a lot of people don’t know. And yes, some of it is conjecture on the part of fans, but I’m a fan so I say, conjecture away!
So, let’s establish with Jack’s ownership of the Pearl, and the timeline, because it’s bothered me for literal years and I think I’ve finally figured it out. Jack was employed by the East India Trading Company, where he was captain of a ship, supposedly the Wicked Wench, and hired to move cargo. Unfortunately, cargo meant slaves. So, Jack reneged on his deal, released the slaves, went pirate, and the East India Trading Company sunk his ship. When your ship gets sunk, and if you survive, you get a fun visit from Davy Jones and his crew, wherein Jack struck a deal. Raise up the Wicked Wench and, let him captain it for 13 years, and then he would join Jones’ crew. So Jones’ takes the deal, raises the ship (which is now black due to fire) Jack rechristens it, and then off his goes on his adventures. At some point he stops by Tia Dalma and picks up his magic compass which points to the thing he wants most. Which is usually adventure. But one time, it’s the Isla de Meurta, this is about 2 years or so in to his adventure. His crew mutinies on him, and he’s kicked off the Pearl. (At some point here Will’s dad is gonna feel bad, before the curse really kicks in, and they’re going to kick him off the boat. But he can’t die, and he doesn’t want to spend eternity tortured so instead he joins Jones’ crew.) 10 years later, Jack goes to get it back, does so successfully, and it’s his again. But now his debt to Jones is coming up, so Jack devises a plan to capture Jones’ heart, literally, so he can control him and not have to make good on his debt. Meanwhile the East India Trading Company also wants the compass, which they know Jack possesses, so they can get the heart, because if you could own a Kraken it would make it much easier to police the global oceans, now wouldn’t it.
This is why Jones requests 100 souls from Jack, because that’s how many slaves he saved from the East India Trading company. It’s why Jack is conflicted about even acquiring said souls from Jones’ and somewhere along the way, I think, Jack realizes the only thing he’s going to have to do is to kill Jones, by stabbing his heart, but he knows he’ll then have to become the captain of the Flying Dutchman, a job he doesn’t want because Jack doesn’t really do jobs, which is another reason his compass starts refusing to work.
Knowing all of this, I think, makes a lot of the character’s actions a lot more compelling in the film. It’s not just about wanting Elizabeth Swan, like everyone seems to think. All Jack wants is the freedom to roam the oceans, going on adventures, sometimes being selfish and sometimes being selfless but ideally without any responsibility whatsoever. He wants to be a legend.
So going into this film with that background in your mind, and seeing the, again, amazing action sequences, being exposed to the new super natural world that’s introduced, the fantastic oceanic tableaus, the interactions between characters and the amazing soundtrack I feel like this film stands up almost just as well as the first one. The only complaint that I have, really, is that it cannot stand alone. You need the context from the first one, which is fine in a sequel, but it doesn’t really end. There’s going to be a third film. We all know this. Now, was the third film released the following year with no delay, sure. But I don’t want to have to watch two films for a full story. I will, and often times do, but I don’t like to be forced into it.
Like I said though, it’s still a fantastic film, it still holds up, and it’s something I’ve been very excited to finally watch. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a lover of a good novel, and this trilogy, the second and third films specifically, watch like a good novel. Either way, I can’t recommend it enough.
Doc and Bob's Disney Adventure 
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