Pirates of the Caribbean is an entertaining adventure story with action and suspense

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2020)

-Spoiler Warning-
For centuries, stories of pirate adventures and exploits have captivated people.
Legends of pirates like Black Beard are still known to this day. Disney's 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl directed by Gore Verbinski embodies this captivation in a movie that is guaranteed to entertain a wide audience.
The first successful element of Pirates of the Caribbean is the engaging and consistent plot. The movie takes place during the mid 1700s in the Caribbean. A group of pirates is cursed and turned into undead skeletons. They require the blood of the child of a crewmember they killed to break the curse. Initially, they capture Elizabeth Swan (played by Keira Knightly) mistakenly thinking her blood can break the curse. The legendary pirate, Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) is recruited by the underdog hero, William Turner (played by Orlando Bloom) to rescue Elizabeth Swan. Jack Sparrow was the previous captain of the pirates and hopes to reclaim the ship by using William Turner, the child of the crewmember they needed, to break their curse. They save Elizabeth Swan but are followed by the Royal Navy who start fighting with the cursed pirates. While they are fighting, William Turner breaks the pirates curse and the Royal Navy is able to kill the pirates. After the battle, Jack Sparrow reclaims his ship and continues a life of piracy.
Another outstanding aspect of Pirates of the Caribbean is it's script. The
dialect and phrases spoken help establish the setting in the 1700s and make the movie seem authentic and realistic. Conversations like the one between William Turner and Jack Sparrow when William convinces Jack to save Elizabeth are important to the continuity of the film and support the plot. The script also realistically conveys the motivations of the characters. It is made apparent there is a love interest between William and Elizabeth despite their limited interaction and without it being explicitly stated. Because of this it makes sense when William so desperately wants to rescue her.
Settings, costumes and props are all lavishly crafted in Pirates of the
Caribbean. Historically accurate costumes and props, like the soldiers' uniforms and guns, are used to create a very realistic setting. Another successful element in the movie is mixing real props and settings with CGI. Real cannons and ships on the open ocean are seamlessly blended with CGI to make it look like cannons are actually being fired and ships are actually being hit and destroyed.
The motivating and engaging theme is yet another success of this film. Pirates
of the Caribbean is about determining your own destiny and defying expectations. The life of pirates is somewhat glorified through how they have rejected society and paved their own path on the open ocean. More specifically this theme is shown through the experience of the character, William Turner. His father was a pirate and left William at a young age. William grew up to be a blacksmith's apprentice who did all the work but let his master take the credit because it was expected of him. While adventuring with the pirate Jack Sparrow, he realized that as a pirate he could pave his own path and break free of the expectations that burdened him.
One of the few criticisms I have of Pirates of the Caribbean is the use of
clichés. While the plot and motivations of the characters are captivating the movie still largely revolves around the saving a damsel in distress cliché. Another cliché that this film overly exploited was the comedic pair from Of Mice and Men, George and Lenny, large and skinny, smart and dumb. It is a commonly used cliché but the problem I have with it in Pirates of the Caribbean is that it is used with two sets of characters. There is a pair of British soldiers and also a pair of pirates that both use this cliché. Initially the characters are humorous but the cliché is quickly overused and is no longer enjoyable by the end of the movie.
At face value, Pirates of the Caribbean is an entertaining adventure story with
action and suspense. If you look deeper, you will find that it is also a movie with a complex plot and motivating themes of defying expectations and determining your own destiny. It has become a classic movie that will continue to be enjoyed by a wide audience for countless years after its release.