OK, Here is the deal folks...

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2003)

I'm 40 years old and am an amatuer authority on pirates, the books on them and pirate movies. I have seen them all including the original classics. The Golden Era of the 30's and 40's with Errol Flynn are the best, even though they may seem corny to today's younger MTV type audiences. "Captain Blood" and "The Sea Hawk" are two of the best ever made.
I just got back from seeing this movie. It's GREAT. All the other positive comments on why to see this flick by other moviegoers are correct! It is a very fun pirate flick, and yes, Johnny Depp is the glue that holds it all together. CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow is the Han Solo of Pirates! I highly recommend this flick to everyone, it gets an A for simply re-energizing a genre that has not been represented correctly in the past few decades and has sort of eroded. Well, welcome back the successful pirate movie!
WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN IT:
However, I do have a few things to say on what is missing. Yeah, the movie works just like the ride, so that is good. Kids will love it. But as a high seas adventure it kind of lacks. Watching crews in their Tall Ships on the open ocean requires moments of working the ship and sailing it and exploring what is out there on the high seas. I'm talking about what it is like to feel the sense of adventure, the feeling of hearing the wind blow, the masts creak in the wind. The feeling like you are on a moving pirate ship at sea and the captain is thinking and planning and being on the lookout for the enemy. You can almost smell the salty air. A good example of this feeling is in Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck. This requires segments of navigation and a certain calmness of the open ocean so the MOOD is set for the action to come. This never happens in "Pirates of the Caribbean". To much of the movie is like a car chase at high speeds, not wind driven ocean going vessels trying to get into position to confront each other. Also, instead of all these pirates and skeletons sword-fighting all at once, they should concentrate on more one on one battles so we can appreciate each fight's outcome better. (see Ray Harryhausen's "Jason and the Argonauts") Sometimes, it is so laden with action and confusion, we miss the benefit of the whole point of why the scenes are filmed in the first place. Also, more daytime seafaring and scenery would have made it better. MTV-ers might love it the way it is, but check out "The Sea Hawk" and tell me which movie gives you the better impression and feeling of what it might have been like for the days of pirates that we are so facinated with.

Anyway, I know it's just a movie based on a the best Disneyland ride ever. Is it a great ride? Yes. Does it do what it is supposed to do, Entertain about pirates? Yes.
I wanted SOOOOO much for this movie to succeed. It did. Thanks to Johnny Depp keeping it glued together with his remarkable, interesting and strange performance. Without him though, I might had been hugely disappointed.