Better than expected

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2004)

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this movie because, quite honestly, I really did not expect to enjoy it at all. Although not a classic piece of filmmaking, the movie was never intended to be such and did exactly what it intended to do - entertain. The make-up and costumes for the pirates were very well done and most of those same pirates were very well played. The town of Tortuga and the ships were also quite impressive. Geoffrey Rush was very good in his role as Barbossa, although perhaps he should have been more evil. Jack Davenport and Jonathan Pryce were very good in their roles as Commander Norrington and Governor Swann. However, as already mentioned a million times, Johnny Depp completely steals the show with his wacky performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. This character should have been pretty one-dimensional but instead he's larger than life. Sparrow is a very memorable character. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley had perhaps the two worst performances in this movie. Their characters were so flat that one truly doesn't care what happens to them. Looking handsome or pretty just doesn't cut it. Another complaint is the extended scenes involving fights with skeletons. Although the CGI pirates were impressive, the fight sequences near the end go on far too long. That said, the movie is still surprisingly good and very entertaining.