At least I wasn't bored

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2003)

The last 20 years haven't been kind to the pirate movie genre. Audiences have rejected such forgettable films as Pirates (Roman Polanski, 1986), The Pirate Movie (Kristy McNichol, 1982), and who can forget the one of the biggest flops in film history, Cutthroat Island (Renny Harlin) that sank an entire studio.
So when Jerry Bruckheimer, the production money behind such hits as The Rock, Top Gun and Black Hawk Down decided to put his name and efforts behind a big budget summer pirate film, I wondered if he finally lost his marbles, or if director Gore Verbinski had nude photos of Jerry in a dress.
Also working against a return of capital was the running time. At 133 minutes, I wondered if a swashbuckling movie could hold an audience captive  especially the target young ones  for over two hours.
Well, all my thoughts and reservations meant nothing after first screening. The story is rather simple. The movie opens at the conclusion of a pirate attack on a ship and the lone survivor by the name of Will Turner is rescued. A gold medallion around his neck is taken by his rescuer's daughter, Elizabeth Swann, and a band of pirates lead by Geoffery Rush are out to get the medallion and return it to its original resting place, thus lifting the curse set upon them of being undead.
In one of the funniest entrances in movie history, Johnny Depp arrives as Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, and immediately his pirate ways lead him into jail. But when Elizabeth is taken hostage upon the pirate ship the Black Pearl, the townspeople look to Jack Sparrow to rescue her and bring order back to the city.
It isn't long before mayhem and sword fights ensue, and it is in the final act that the film has its most incredible visual. The cursed pirates are visible in skeleton form when exposed to moonlight, and in a swordfight between Jack and Barbossa (captain of the Black Pearl), the two battle in and out of the moonlight beams shinning down into a cave. The transformation of skeleton to human to skeleton again in the blink of an eye is movie magic at its best.
On paper, the movie had everything going against it. Its running time of 140+ minutes. It's director, Gore Verbinski, who had a hit last year in The Ring', but was still new to the fold with only 4 movie titles to his credit. Johnny Depp in a leading role was even a gamble since he had yet to prove to be a box office juggernaut. However, everything comes together in true Disney style. The special effects are top rate, the story is long, but energetic, and the villain (usually the most important character in this genre) was superb. Geoffery Rush gives us the most charismatic villain since Jack Nicholson in Batman.
I should note that the supporting cast also does its best with the material. Elizabeth and Will are played with just the right amount of enthusiasm and playfulness, by Bend it Like Beckham's Keira Knightley and Lord of the Rings' Orlando Bloom.
If there was once complaint I would say that the humor doesn't come off as well as they would have expected and Johnny Depp, although tolerable, seems like he is trying too hard in his role that was a cross between Errol Flynn and Liberace.
But forget its small drawbacks and the history or pirate movies. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a good movie where everyone seems to be having fun.