Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

The visuals in Pirates are impressive—and disturbing | Andrew Coffin

Anyone who's been to Disneyland knows that the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is not much of a ride at all. It has a few steep, short drops, but for the most part the tethered boats that carry passengers along just move slowly down the track.

But the ride attracts long lines because it transports visitors to another world. The ride is experienced in near total darkness, except for the cleverly illuminated, life-size dioramas of pirate shenanigans and debauchery that line the waterway.

And so it goes with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The film moves a little quicker than the ride, but the emphasis on visual stimulation remains the same. That's even truer of Dead Man's Chest (Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images), than it was of its predecessor, 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.