Adventure unlike any other

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2016)

A movie doesn't have to change how we see the world. It doesn't have to be deeply philosophical and profound. It doesn't have to render us down to tears. It doesn't have to be depressing and real. If it can be, and if it can pull it off beautifully... great. But it doesn't have to in order to be a good movie.
Take this movie, for instance. It's based on a amusement park ride, of all things. Disney decided to do a pirate film, when the subgenre was pretty much believed to be dead, buried and the earth salted. But they did it anyway. Someone out there had a story to tell and believed in it enough to sell it to others. And in the process they made the best adventure movie I've seen so far in my life. Everything this movie does is pure entertainment. It's a kid's dream come true. Pirates rule the Caribbean sea and every scurvy sailor out there is armed to teeth with cutlasses, crappy pistols and really bad rum. Men are steel, boats are wood and the black flag sends shivers down your spine.
But what really elevates this above other adventure films has to be the production values. First of all, the visuals are amazing. You're transported instantly into the age of sails, and the designs hit that perfect pitch between fantastic, real and horror. Top marks for the effects team. Second are the actors. Johnny Depp is nowadays synonymous with his character Jack Sparrow, who has become THE icon of piracy, with his outrageous look, mumbling speech patterns and plans which cannot possibly work, except that they're so crazy that somehow they do. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley play the two other main parts and they fit in like gloves as well.
Special mention has to go to Klaus Badelt for his score. Instantly recognizable, iconic and fitting the mood of dark and threatening adventure perfectly. One of the movie soundtracks I find myself listening over and over again.
I get why someone doesn't like this film. It just doesn't take itself all that seriously. But the thing is, if it did, it would be a lesser movie for it. The fun is in the adventure, in the fantasy. It's escapism at its finest. And I absolutely love I it. One of my favourite movies of all time and a journey I will take again and again for the rest of my life.