Overwrought, turgid, grotesque

Rating: 5/10 (22 September 2003)

Overwrought, grotesque, turgid. At the end they are fighting and fighting, Barberousse (who does not have a red beard) and Sparrow, and we ask why because neither can die. On and on and on and on they go, while elsewhere all kinds of mayhem occurs. This film has a mixed tone - unlike Sinbad: it tries to be a swashbuckler, but must fall into line on the current craze for realistic effects and graphic violence. We watch brutal, winner-take-all-and-death-to-the-loser battles, as the heroes quip and prance, and just out of frame the ghouls plunge swords into the chests of soldiers we have just seen fall. In Sinbad, no one seems to die - and that is fine by me. Johnny Depp swishes drunkenly through his role; Orlando Bloom is appropriately dewy and earnest; the girl is luminous, fiery, resourceful - like every heroine in action films these days. This film fell seriously in love with its main effect: the pirates turn into ghouls under the moonlight. You want to see a great swashbuckler, invite your niece or nephew or the kid next door, and check out Sinbad.