Entertaining Swashbuckling Fun

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2004)

"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is just the kind of jovial, buccaneering blockbuster that demands a sequel in the future. It is worthy sea-faring entertainment indeed, featuring glorious and realistic set design, spooky and impeccable visual effects, some fine, indelible acting by Johnny Depp (in his most whimsical performance yet), and some classy, comical dialogue between the British sea captains and the vicious, blood-thirsty pirates. A film that provides basically everything you might expect in this kind of fun-filled adventure, albeit somewhat overstaying its merry welcome and deviating enormously from its Disneyland theme park ride inspiration, hardly ever does this amusing, entertaining extravaganza of a movie go wrong. From the gorgeous costume designs to the murky, gloomy, and shanky sets of the Caribbean, pirates' ships, and lands ahoy, to the eye-popping, deceiving visual effects (I was chilled to the bone at the transformation of the "pirates in the light" sequence), aside from being sheerly entertaining and festive, this is one amazing technical piece of cinema. Johnny Depp steals practically every scene he occupies, and Geoffrey Rush is excellent and sinister in his villainous turn. It's about as high-quality fun as one might demand in a summer blockbuster, and will have you singing "Yo ho, ho ho" for days and days to come. A "pirate's life" is plenty the life in "Pirates of the Caribbean", an worthy, intelligent sea-faring adventure guaranteed to leave you, at the very least, plenty satisfied. ***1/2 out of ****