The first film in the Pirates of
the Caribbean series find Captain Jack Sparrow without a ship. Meanwhile,
Elizabeth Swann (the Governor of a small Caribbean island’s daughter) is being
pursued by Commodore Norrington, but secretly harbors feelings for a blacksmith
apprentice named Will Turner (who Elizabeth discovered years earlier
shipwrecked and adrift). Elizabeth is fascinated by Pirates and has always
believed Will to be one, finding a Pirate gold piece on him when he was
discovered. Captain Jack has intentions of stealing one of the British Navy’s
ships but is captured while rescuing Elizabeth from drowning. Unfortunately,
she was wearing the Pirate gold piece as a charm necklace. When it touches the
water, it calls out to Captain Barbossa and his fearsome crew of the Black
Pearl (the most feared ship in the Caribbean). Borbossa and his crew storm the
island in search of the gold piece, taking Elizabeth prisoner. Now, Will and
Jack must work together to rescue Elizabeth. Jack also wants to exact some
revenge on the crew that betrayed him and stole his ship (Captain Barbossa and
his crew).
The film is directed by Gore Verbinski
(who directed the initial trilogy). He worked with composer Klaus Badelt
(whose score is very good; however, Hans Zimmer brings
a lot to it, taking over on the next film), brilliant cinematographer Dariusz Wolski,
and production designer Brad Morris (who
also does great work, but Rick Heinrichs
takes over for him on the next film as well).
The cast is fantastic. Johnny Depp
stars (garnering a Best Actor Oscar nomination), creating maybe his most iconic
character. Keira
Knightley (in her breakthrough role), Orlando Bloom
and Geoffrey
Rush co-star. The supporting cast features Jack Davenport,
Jonathan Pryce,
Lee Arenberg,
Mackenzie Cook,
and Kevin
McNally. Look out for a cameo from Zoe Saldana
(in a small role).
The idea of Disney adapting one
of their theme park rides into a movie sounded like a terrible one. The initial
trailers for The Curse of the Black Pearl were not very good either. The
chances of the film being good seemed very slim and then we all saw it. The
Curse of the Black Pearl is a ton of fun, built on the brilliant performances
from Depp, Rush and Knightley and the very entertaining pirate-themed action
and adventure. Most think that it is the best of the series so far (personally,
I like Dead
Man’s Chest a bit more) – a series that has its fifth film
in production currently. Disney tried to bring multiple Dinseyland rides to
life through live-action films (The Country Bears
and The Haunted
Mansion), but it has never work quite as well (that said, next year’s Tomorrowland has a
lot of potential to be good). This is a must-see for fans of great, fun
adventure films.
Trailer: Here
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