Best of the series (Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl (DVD))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl (DVD)
Date:	15/09/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Performances and direction

Disadvantages: Cheesy

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room

I must confess that the Pirates of the Caribbean films didn't take me as much as they seemed to most people - I admire the craft involved, and Johnny Depp is rather good as Captain Jack Sparrow, but people seem to try and elevate it beyond the daft adventure fare that it is. For that purpose, it's a great fun outing, but it's not anything more than cheesy fun. Still, for a film based on a theme park ride, it's a pretty great effort.

The film opens a a pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) is to be hanged for his acts of piracy, theft and murder. However, he managed to escape. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), a young beautiful woman, is captured by other pirates, whilst Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a young man madly in love with her, sets off to try and free her. This ultimately results in all the threads converging, with Elizabeth meeting up with Captain Jack, and an unlikely partnership beginning, where Jack agrees to help her if she'll help him stop Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) from breaking the curse of the Black Pearl, which will make him and his evil band of pirates virtually indestructible and able to rule the seas.

This is a film with great style indeed - the visual effects are very impressive and considering the chaos on-screen, the carnage is well directed by Gore Verbinski. The unqualified delight is Depp, but Geoffrey Rush is also superb as the villainous Barbossa.

The best film in a highly overrated series. The sense of scale in this film has to be respected, and to be fair, the film was highly enjoyable, namely due to the performances of Rush, and moreso, Depp. It's a shame corporate greed forced two more highly unnecessary sequels that didn't live up to this.

Summary: A fun, silly ride