Pirates of the Caribbean:
The Curse of the Black Pearl

Release Date: July 9, 2003
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott, Jay Wolpert, Stuart Beattie
Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Giles New, Angus Barnett, David Bailie, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Kevin McNally, Treva Etienne, Zoe Saldana
Genre: Action, Crime
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for action/adventure violence)
Official Website: Pirates.movies.com

Plot Summary: For the roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp), the crystalline waters of the Caribbean, like the high seas the world over, present a vast playground where adventure and mystery abound. But Jack’s idyllic life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa (Rush), steals his ship, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the Governor’s (Pryce) beautiful daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Knightley). Elizabeth’s childhood friend, Will Turner (Bloom), joins forces with Jack to commandeer the fastest ship in the British fleet, the HMS Interceptor, in a gallant attempt to rescue her and recapture the Black Pearl. The duo and their motley crew are pursued by Elizabeth's betrothed, the debonair, ambitious Commodore Norrington (Davenport), aboard the HMS Dauntless. Unbeknownst to Will, there is a curse that has doomed Barbossa and his crew to live forever as the undead, where each moonlight, they are transformed into living skeletons. The curse they carry can be broken only if a once-plundered treasure is restored.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2003
- Take a pot shot but be warned.

Hollywood screen writers have for years tried to appease their film producers by writing material that sits within already established formulas that work. It’s the sex scene followed by a quiet, but talky, break then followed by something else sexy rule that keeps the machine churning and making money. If audiences stayed away from something that used to made a profit they’d come up with another set formula to risk on the public. "Pirates of the Caribbean" is a well calculated formula that actually works on those that contributed to the pirate $275 million and increasing fund at the box office this year. Underneath all that "Pirates" is a paint-by-the-numbers story-line with a few redeeming features to keep this feeling fresh.

The story is a predictable rehash of other successful scenarios. A blacksmith (Bloom) is on a mission to rescue his damsel in distress (Knightly) whom he has unrequited feelings for. She is noticeably imprisoned by the strictly by-the-rules world of her upper class English upbringing and her capture by the hands of pirates (led by Geoffrey Rush) is actually a way of finding herself and the love of her life.

Enter a renegade and fop pirate played by Johnny Depp who flamboyantly flings himself into dangerous situations only to find himself slayed by the British imperialists. He becomes Bloom’s guide and accomplice in finding the young woman in the face of discovering old foes along the way.

Shades of generation X favourites are found here for the new crop of children and teenagers. Saving beautiful princesses, battling the incessant foe, battling the oppressor within, sword duels, unlikely companions, the villain with a story behind his evil character, and mysticism, seem to have come out of the Star Wars book that borrowed from other myths. The result is mixed. The story plods along to the inevitable conclusion and there are many long pauses between battle scenes where it feels the story is re-explaining itself through dialogue that doesn’t build up the characters, but instead dwells on unnecessary and unmemorable details.

It is the central performers and the background comedy that integrates the pirate setting and its ideas more so than the plotting - this is what creates the film’s character. Johnny Depp is memorably kooky, shifty, energetic and off-beat as Jack Sparrow, the highlight of the acting, and he compliments the more intensely serious Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly who are less memorable but still play their characters appropriately well. Geoffrey Rush gets to play subtle shades of the comedic, a balance to Depp’s extravagance, and Rush plays the semi-serious parts convincingly.

Of course there are special effects, and of course they are great (what do you expect nowadays?) but I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the final product because you feel cheated that the formula to get bums on seats, and the execution of that formula, is numbing and sometimes just plain plodding. You’ve seen it done better before. This regurgitates and spits it out to the audience. It has freshness and likable quirkiness, but that plays second fiddle to the so-what question.