My night with Octopus Head

I find myself facing a myriad of movie choices. There are films you want to see on the big screen and those that will do just find as a rental. Last night I saw Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. I try to see every film Johnny Depp makes.

I enjoyed this film very much but the Jack Sparrow schtick wears thin on me after awhile. He based the character on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. At any rate, Depp was wonderful and Orlando Bloom, beautiful to look at no matter what he does, was suitably compelling in his role. But the star of the piece was Bill Nighy who played pirate Davy Jones.

I love learning about how a production was accomplished, especially one involving special effects. I have done production facilitating special effects including puppetry and I know the work that goes into it. This actor showed up with some basic makeup for the role and then the remaining makeup was done via CGI. Please google this and don't ask me to explain it suffice to say it involves computer artistry. The result was a seamless looking makeup job. I could not tell this guy was wearing makeup - it looked very real. The whole bit.

The special effects in the movie work quite well and even though you can tell the crew of the Flying Dutchman were computer generated, it somehow worked given the otherwordly appearance of the ghostly ship. I have seen other big budget movies who did not do nearly as well with the special effects as this production.

There will undoubtedly be a sequel to this second installment of the series. I will be there to see it.