A modern-day high-seas blockbuster born from unlikely Disney roots

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2015)

Disregarding the bloated the carcass that has become the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series helps restore the lustre to "Curse of the Black Pearl". At least, it did for me. It's a rousing pirate adventure, cleverly mixing battle scenes, humor and memorable characters. But it's really built around Captain Jack Sparrow, which is a problem I had with the later entries when the cast really got crowded and he was (somewhat) sidelined. But he is the real magic here, and Depp plays the character with mincing bug-eyed flair. He's a treat.
Then again, so's the whole movie, especially bearing in mind that it's a big effects movie spawned from a theme park ride. Let that sink in for a moment, and this really has no business being so good. Like some sort of mad science experiment in Anaheim that was never supposed to work.
Yet it totally does.
8/10