Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2003)

There were many reasons to expect a particularly bad film, despite the list of talented actors that included Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, and Orlando Bloom. The fact that the entire is based upon a Disney theme park attraction makes one expect to see a cheesy kids movie. And let us not forget the horror of a film that was thrown at us the last time movie execs came up with the same brilliant idea: The Country Bears.
But alas, Disney may have struck gold in Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of The Black Pearl. It is a wonderfully fun action flick, albeit slightly too long, coming in at a padded 2 hours and 23 minutes. Granted, no academy awards will be won for the picture (except possibly for special effects or costume design), but it does not disappoint. It is filled with a thorough plot that leads us through some epic adventures and extremely fun battles.

The acting, in particular, is top notch in this movie, led by the great Johnny Depp. It is hard to come up with the right words that can describe the way in which he portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow, but either way, it was nothing short of fantastic. Nobody else in the cast can seem to match the level of intensity that Mr. Depp does, but they all do an admirable job trying. Geoffrey Rush, as his arch-villain ex- first mate, Captain Barbosa, creates a believable villain that movie goers will love to hate. Orlando Bloom (the reason many young ladies will be seeing this movie I suspect) also does a great job portraying Will Turner, a blacksmith and childhood friend of Elizabeth Swann, played by the lovely Keira Knightley, whom he is very much in love with, unbeknownst to her. There are also several supporting actors who add great depth to this movie, such as Jack Davenport (Norrington), Jonathan Price (Governor Weatherby Swann, Elizabeth's father), and several others.
Not going into many specifics as to not spoil the fun for those who have yet to catch the film, Jack Sparrow, as captain of The Black Pearl, was ambushed by Barbosa and his men and left for dead. They went on to find a great treasure, which came with a great curse: under the light of the moon, it is revealed that they are nothing but skeletons; undead. Ms. Swann owns a piece of the treasure that is needed to erase the curse, so she is kidnapped along with said treasure. Will Turner, her childhood friend and secret admirer busts Sparrow out of jail and they are off to save his love. Adventure and excitement ensue.
The effects in this movie are particularly great, not as much for their visual portrayal, but for their originality. It would have been very easy to make the skeletons of the crew of The Black Pearl white and ordinary (like the kind in the classroom of a high school Biology professor), but they didn't. The fight scenes between the real life actors and the CGI skeletons are also fantastic.
The bottom line is that this movie is solid all around. There is nothing about this movie that makes for a great movie, but I imagine that it was never really supposed to be one, and that is admirable. In the end, this movie is exactly what it was meant to be, a good, fun adventure.
My rating: 8/10