Good start to a long-lasting franchise

Rating: 6/10 (13 December 2014)

The very first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie was a huge success at the box office and at awards ceremonies. It was no°3 at the 2003 box office behind the final "Lord of the Rings" chapter and "Finding Nemo". Also it received 5 Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Depp (his first nomination ever) and also an SAG Award for him. That is also why there have been 3 sequels already, no°4 is safe and number 5 looks likely too. The first one (just like 2 and 3) was directed by Gore Verbinski, who kept reuniting with Depp after his exit from the Pirates franchise. The writing team already worked together on animation classics like "Shrek" and "Aladdin". My favorite part from the script was possibly the "saving the one shot" storyline and the final shot was one of the highlights of the movie. I was a bit surprised the crew went according to protocol at some point as they seemed extremely loyal to Sparrow initially, but I guess it shows that you can never trust pirates. Thank God Captain Sparrow survived all these dangerous situations early on like the hail of bullets after he saved and threatened Elizabeth Swann or when he almost gets hung near the end of the film. Actually that could have been a nice ending if they hadn't done all these sequels. A bit unexpected, but somehow different.
I also thought Geoffrey Rush did a good job with his character (but that's a given as it's Geoffrey Rush), the main antagonist to Sparrow. His death scene near the end was pretty special. I guess they did not plan to include him in the sequels, but they were wrong. Let's see how they bring him back. Another antagonist, the commodore, I was really fond of. I almost cheered for him more than for Bloom's character (just like Sparrow). It was actually nice for a change to see the rival to be displayed in not such a bad light. I found him likable and you could even call him a hero. Knightley did a solid job too and I liked Depp as well. I'm not his biggest fan, but here he convinced me and made me laugh too. He is a very costume-oriented actor if you look at his body of work and Jack Sparrow may very well be his most memorable role. Orlando Bloom unfortunately still does nothing for me. He is all about his looks and little about being a talented actor in my opinion. This franchise started right after "The Lord of the Rings", so they cast him as a crowd magnet I guess. The film is mostly a family movie. Here and there, there is a bit of violence, like ghost pirates cutting throats of Navy officers, but it's all not too graphic or very fast over.
Another strength of the film is the music. I am a bit surprised Zimmer was completely snubbed by everybody that awards season as his soundtrack is certainly one of the most memorable from 2003 and pretty much everybody has heard the main theme.