Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Format - BluRay
Date Watched - 9 January 2010
Director - Gore Verbinski

Pirates of the Caribbean is a sweeping action-adventure story set in an era when villainous pirates scavenged the Caribbean seas. This roller coaster tale teams a young man, Will Turner, with an unlikely ally in rogue pirate Jack Sparrow. Together, they must battle a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elizabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a climactic confrontation on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fierce mortal combat, Will and Jack attempt to recapture The Black Pearl ship, save the British navy, and relinquish a fortune in forbidden treasure thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thanks to IMDb for the plot summary.

An film from 2003 that is based upon a ride at Disneyland of the same name, now I have no idea if there is a plot to the ride so if there is any correlation between the film and the ride. However you basic story is Man loves woman, woman loves man, but they do not tell each other. Woman kidnapped by pirates, man goes to rescue woman with Pirates old captain, turns out kidnapping pirates are cursed, and hilarity ensues.

I like this film it is a solid family film with some excellent laughs some good effects and a fairly coherent story. It is a fairly straight forward film with some nice little sub plots and characters and it is a really good ride. The biggest drawback to the film is that it is nearly 2 and half hours long and they made 2 more, third sequel is apparentley in the making. The sequels are terrible in my opionion and at least Pirates was made in a time when sequels while common were not guaranteed therefore you get a nice finish to the story, it is open for a sequel but not needed.

So it is a huge film with a large cast your main players are Johnny Depp playing Captain Jack Sparrow and he has spawned a phenomenom as he is a much loved character with his quirkyness and the way he plays it. He apparantly based his performance it on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, a very good impression from what I have seen. Your loving couple from the film are Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, they are adequate, they are pretty enough to make a good couple but their acting skills while not great are good enough for the family fun that this film is. Geoffrey Rush plays Captain Barbossa and he is immense in my opinion he plays the bad guy with humour and campiness but when he threatens someone you actually believe that he is dark enough to be a feared Pirate Captain. The supporting cast are good enough with some good comedy between McKenzie Crook and Lee Arenberg as 2 bumbling pirates. The effects are impressive, no less than you would expect from a Disney film, the obvious CGI that is required to pull off what they required is very good, you know it is CGI but it is good enough that you can see past that fact.

If you have not seen this film, I would recommend it, it is family entertainment at the best Disney can produce live action and the music will run around in your head for days afterwards, the quality on the BluRay is impeccable and well worth viewing. However do not bother with the sequels, I may re-watch them at sometime but the twice I have seen the second it did nothing for me at all and the third is only memorable for the reasons I do not like it.

I give this 4/5 swashbuckling pirates.

Let me know if you have seen it and your thoughts on it.