Well, blow me down! This movie ain't half bad!

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2003)

I entered `Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' with mediocre anticipation. Pirate movies are said that have a curse of their own, with a handful of such films failing miserably at the box office throughout the Â‘90s. With such low expectations, imagine my surprise when the movie turned out to be far from a turkey.
Now that's not to say that this is a great film. Heaven knows that for the past decade most Hollywood summer releases are essentially $100 million B-movies, and this is no exception. The story is shoddy, the quips are many, and the special effects have a sort of `look at how fake I am!' feeling to them.
But it is a rousing adventure, and for the most part, the cast eats up the proceedings with vigor. Our film begins with young Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) spotting a boy floating on a makeshift raft near the decimated remains of a ship. The boy is pulled aboard Elizabeth's ship, which is currently transporting her father Governor Swann to a settlement in the New World. She takes a pendant off the boy while he is unconscious, which has a suspicious looking gold coin attached to it.
Flash forward eight years to our story proper, where Elizabeth is now blossoming into womanhood. Despite the well-meaning interference of her father to arrange her marriage, Elizabeth's heart still lies with the boy, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), who is now a blacksmith with a deep resentment of pirates which stems from his mysterious past. Before the conflicting love triangle can come to a head, however, the fort comes under attack by the pirate crew of the Black Pearl, a supposed ghost ship that haunts the Spanish Main, and Elizabeth is taken hostage along with the pendant.
Upset about the unwillingness of the British Navy to go after her, Will decides to enlist the aid of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), a pirate being held in the fort awaiting a hanging. Sparrow is naturally more then eager to escape the gallows, and becomes especially intrigued when he discovers Will's name. The two unlikely companions gather a scurvy crew and then set sail after the Black Pearl, Turner on a rescue mission and Sparrow seeking to settle a vendetta.
The standard pirate movie cliches of forcibly boarding ships under naval engagements, talking parrots, sword fights and buried treasure abound, but the film has such a refreshingly energetic pace that every plot point seems fresh.
Depp is the most pleasant surprise in this film, as a dishonored pirate who laughs at danger while reminding everyone that they're in the presence of greatness. He manages to make Sparrow a unique character, with a laid back demeanor even during crisis and a strange loose limbed drunken-like gait that resembled the way he stumbled about in `Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.' He takes a shine to young Will, playfully dropping hints about the boy's father's past. Depp took what should have been a textbook role and brought life to what could have been a lackluster adventure tale.
Geoffrey Rush also excels as the Black Pearl's Captain Barbossa, the leader of a supernatural crew of cutthroats searching the seas for the artifacts that will restore their mortality. Rush is energetic but not hammy, and steals his scenes by underplaying his role instead of trying to fill the screen. Along with Depp, he is the brightest star here.
Bloom and Knightley are serviceable but not outstanding, certainly up to the task of the stunt work but not the human side of the story. They're in love because the script says so, and there's little chemistry between the two.
Apart from the Disney World ride the movie takes its title from, it probably owes equal parts of inspiration from `The Mummy,' `The Evil Dead 2,' and, because of all the skeletons, `Jason and the Argonauts.' The movie offers a few unexpected surprises and charms, and stands out like a diamond in the rough against most summer dreck. Plus you have to have to admire any film in the 21st century that delivers lines like `avast me hearties' and `shiver me timbers' with a straight face.