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Who doesn’t know the Pirates of the Caribbean? Stemmed from the Disney ride, Jerry Bruckheimer took a stab at making the amusement park ride a movie. Whether it worked or not is hard to tell. As with most movies The Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse of the Black Pearl has its good points and its bad points, but meshes them well to make an enjoyable movie. The main plot circles around a cliched damsel in distress and a strapping hero has to save her story, but it also has an alternative story which will keep you watching so you aren’t bored with another damsel in distress story. The film has a few protagonists, Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp and William Turner played by Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings), a antagonist General Barbossa played by Geoffrey Rush, and your damsel Elizabeth Swann played by the absolutely beautiful Keira Knightley (Bend It Like Beckham). The general idea is that Swann's a member of the higher society found William Turner overboard in the ocean and rescued him. On him was a medallion of pirate decent, that Swann besides to loot from Turner's fainted body. Several years later we return to Swann's castle to find her holding her medallion preciously and see that William Turner has become the town Blacksmith. As it turns out, Swann and Turner have the hots for each other (surprise surprise) and once Swann is abducted by the crew of the Black Pearl who search for the medallion, Turner sets out on a quest to get her back. Unable to do it alone, Turner affiliates with a pirate who is causing havoc around town, one Jack Sparrow. Sparrow agrees to help Turner because he seeks revenge on General Barbossa of the Black Pearl because he lead a mutiny against Sparrow who was once a member of the Black Pearl leaving him marooned on an island. With different motives, the protagonists set out on their journey. As it turns out the Black Pearl is cursed and to lift the curse they need to blood of the one pirate who put the curse on them (wonder who that could be?). Thinking Swann is the ancestor of the medallion they take her hostage with intentions to use her to life the curse. You get the general idea; I don’t want to give anymore away, as it seems that the more I talk about the plot the least interesting it gets. But to your and my surprise the movie holds up well for the most part. The story (when it is progressing) keeps you interested enough to want to watch to see what happens next.
I would like to say the movie had a good deal of positive points to it. Firstly, the movie would certainly not have been as good as it was had it not been for the acting, which in my opinion, was rather good. Pirates of the Caribbean is not a serious movie, which is what saves it from being a bore. Jack Sparrow and General Barbossa can only be described as goofs, rarely ever taking a serious tone, with of course the exception of the line, "Better start believing in ghost stories Miss Turner, You're in one." Depp and Rush play the characters to perfection. The unserious tone they set for the movie is what keeps you watching. The story is not that deep that it can carry the movie, so the tone brought by Depp will make you snicker and laugh at the almost stupidity. While odd, it keeps you watching. I never took Depp for too good an actor, and while I don’t think of him as top of the line now, I certainly have a little more respect for him. Sparrow almost acts a little homosexual, with his drag queen eye make up, lisp, and slur on his words and he nails the character to a tee. William Turner played by Orlando Bloom, is acted well, but he is more of a serious tone rather than the light hearted tone set by Depp and Barbossa, so a well acted serious role almost feels out of place. While the acting isn’t bad, it lacks something else. Kind of like being out of place. While not as bright a spot as Depp, Keira Knightley plays her role very well. Then again, she could have stood there is her dress and it would have been enough for me. Aside from introducing me to this beautiful actress (whom you can see a lot more of in a movie called The Hole), the casting crew casted a perfect character. She plays the part well and looks good while doing it. I have no complaints on the characters and casting in this film. The most notable part of the movie is the cast. Without Depp and the way he played the character, I don’t think the movie would have been as good as it was. If he played the role seriously, the movie would be certainly hard to watch they would have to have Knightley in every scene to keep me watching. Im going to put the overall story in the good points as well as the bad points, because well it has its good points and its bad points. The good points are well; it keeps you watching even through the 143 minutes the movie occupies. There really isn’t too much to mention as to why the story is in the good points, except that you are left feeling like the movie went well story wise. It kept you watching so it did its job. The special effects are certainly noteworthy as well. Without giving too much away from the plot, the detail on the skeletons on the sword fight makes it look good. It looks almost real and doesn’t have the fake look to it. It is clearly shown when there are sword fights between skeletons and how they move next to a regular person, its hard to tell its CGI, and I guess that is why its on the good list. The last good point is the script. The script accents Depp character and the goofy feel that the movie brings. A lot of Depp's goofy and funny lines can be credited to the script. The mix of Depp nailing his character and an above average script definitely makes the movie what it is.
Well every rose has its thorns, but not to say that Pirates of the Caribbean was a rose, but it had thorns. You get the point. While the acting of Depp brought a funny feel to the movie it didn’t really fit in with the overall plot. At times you had a hard time discerning whether the movie was an action movie or a comedy. It could be that Im not a fan of mixing genres, but at times it didn’t feel like it worked. You had jokes being cracked while there is this supposedly intense sword fight going on. You either had to make the movie an action movie or a comedy this movie was neither. It was an odd mix of both. It seems that Im knocking Depp's performance after I just praised it, but that's not it. His performance was good for what they gave him. What they gave him wasn’t much though. This point leads into my second bad point. The movie because based off Disney, was rated PG-13. And with it being rated PG-13 it kind of lost a lot. I would have liked to see the movie rated R. I mean all the scenes with Knightley on the Black Pearl were a tease, should have had it rated R and show what they really would have done to her on that ship. And with it being rated R you could have had more violence than just a couple of sword clangs. I don’t really know what I would have wanted from it, if they went very serious it may have been cliched filled and boring, but what they did didn’t work very well either. I think an R rating would have done it good. Plus with an R rating we could have seen more of Knightley, who if I didn’t mention is absolutely beautiful. The last flaw in the game is the length. While you are generally interested the whole time, its still 143 minutes, and at times when there isn’t too much happening you feel the drag. It could have easily been compressed to two hours and possible less. But what we get is what we get.
I certainly was not wowed by the Extra Features, which occupy a second disk. It seemed like there was a lot of nothing. There are 19 deleted/edited scenes, but none of them are anything special. Just a snippet here and there and some of them I didn’t see any difference in. Altogether there are 19 Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary by Gore Verbinski (Director) and Johnny Depp, Audio Commentary by Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer), Keira Knightley, and Jack Davenport, Audio Commentary by the writers of the script, "An Epic at Sea" which is the making of Pirates of the Caribbean, a history of pirates, "Fly on the Set" which is a featurette, "Diary of a Pirate" a Behind-the-Scenes look with cast member Lee Arenberg, "Diary of a Ship" Video Journal, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" an Archival TV Program, "Producer's Diary" featurette with Jerry Bruckheimer, Image Gallery, and lastly a Blooper Reel. None of which fascinated me too much. It was a bore going through all of them. If I hadn’t been reviewing the DVD Bonus Features I would not have watched half of them. Not a place where the DVD shines...
Overall, I was left with a positive feeling from this movie. I didnt walk away saying, "I want the two hours back in my life," but I also wasnt like "This is the greatest movie ever." In the end, its definately worth a see. While it did seem to drag at points I always stayed watching which to me, means I enjoyed the process of watching it. If they were to make a sequel I would definately see it. And it seems to me that they are going to. Something along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean : New Sub Name rather than The Curse of the Black Pearl. Wait and see on that. While the movies overall score isnt stellar, it still gets the positive mark.
Story : 6/10
Cast : 10/10
Sound : 7/10
Special Effects : 8/10
Bonus : 4/10
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