Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Jordan, Amberly, Naomi

Wow that's an old trailer. It still has Alan Silvestri listed as composer.

So this is the film that started it all. Jerry Bruckheimer made a successful film out of a 60 year old disneyland ride. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio doing the final polish on the script and Gore Verbinski in the directors seat. They would prove to be a good team and they made some pretty neat movies.

With the the impending release of the 4th film, albeit not from this creative team, I thought it prudent to go back and check these out again all in a row. Although this first film is made as a stand alone they all play well together. This one serving as an introduction to the world, characters, locations and general mythology. Compared to the other two, this one seems rather modest in its intentions but it's the one generally regarded with the most fondness.

Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow is now an icon. He is a joy to watch. But what this film has going for it is the equally impressive Geoffrey Rush as the main villain of the first film. Barbossa is everything you want in a pirate.

The first film takes place in two basic locations, the port and the hidden cave, which is nothing when compared to the epic scope of the next films and their web of tangled plots, characters and objectives. Here though it's pretty straight forward. Undead pirates want to lift the curse and kidnap Keira Knightley who holds their salvation. Orlando Bloom teams up with Depp to save his love. They are all chased by the Britts.

The coolest action set pieces take place towards the start with the sword fight in the Blacksminths and Sparrow's escape. The finale in the cave has some great moments in it to, but overall isn't as fun as the earlier stuff. The effects for the undead pirates are cool but pale when compared to Davey Jones and his crew from the latter films.

A huge blockbuster at the time of it's release but when watched together this film feels like a fun brief little set up, the shortest of all the films and the smallest in scope. It certainly never drags and is filled with great details, many of which are capitalised and expanded upon later.