Fun movie, but doesn't deserve such high praise

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2006)

Yes, Johnny Depp is one of today's greatest actors and it's amazing that he'd dedicate so much time and effort to a character in a flavour-of-the-month fad movie like this one. But really, that's all there is to this film. If another actor entirely had played Jack Sparrow, this movie would get a 5 from me, tops. It is simply an extremely forgettable film. In 20 years, who will even remember who played Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann? Knightly and Bloom are good to look at, but they'll soon be past their expiration date and, let's face it, no one watches their movies for their acting.
The entire movie consists mainly of CGI skeletons, CGI ships and tired children's' humour derived from would-be funny characters (the transvestite ghosts, whatever their names were, are the most forgettable sidekicks this side of Tantor). The plot is as uninteresting as they come. The only reason to see this film is Depp, and although his performance is positively amazing, it's not enough to boost this flick to "great movie" status. His great job and the gorgeous Caribbean scenery is enough to make this movie an above average kids' flick, but no more, no less.
There's not much else to say on the subject, so I'll leave you eunuchs to re-watch the film and consider that maybe everything about "Pirates" really isn't as amazing as you first thought it was. (r#44)