An absolutely amazing adventure! Love it.

Disney have been the creators of many landmarks of cinema mostly animation but have provided many great live-action enchantments over the years and Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl did two things: it had the Disney magic and that the adventure that is within the film shows what Disney is all about. It does have its dark moments such as cursed men who can turn into skeletons at night when the moon is out and scenes of violence but the hilarious comedy, the strong development of the characters, the acting, directing and the screenplay made it all the better to watch and made it magically enjoyable and pleasurable to watch.


Pirates Of The Caribbean (especially this first one) are a series of films of great seriousness and with a lot of jokes and over the past few years there have been films that have failed due to being one or the other when its purpose is to be both. As for Curse Of The Black Pearl, it really does deliver everything a film of pure entertainment does and should. The effects are all beautifully done obviously but perhaps the best technical quality, in my opinion, has got to be the music (same with Dead Man's Chest and At World's End) because despite the story is quite dark, it manages to provide the liveliness of the film and make it suitable for youngsters. I'm pretty sure some of you will disagree with me on this but I don't think that Pirates Of The Caribbean needed to be a franchise because without giving any spoilers: the story was told and ending was solid enough but I'm glad they still did the sequels despite they had more flaws than this one did.


This swash-buckling tale follows the quest of Captain Jack Sparrow, a savvy pirate, and Will Turner, a resourceful blacksmith, as they search for Elizabeth Swann. Elizabeth, the daughter of the governor and the love of Will's life, has been kidnapped by the feared Captain Barbossa. Little do they know, but the fierce and clever Barbossa has been cursed. He, along with his large crew, are under an ancient curse, doomed for eternity to neither live, nor die. That is, unless a blood sacrifice is made.


Johnny Depp was perhaps an actor who wasn't even half as popular up until the release of The Curse Of The Black Pearl so this is definitely his breakthrough performance which got him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actor (but lost to Sean Penn in Mystic River) a Screen Actor Guild Award for the same category and others. Out of the many films that have been done in the past and that I have seen, I really don't think there is an actor who is anymore perfect for a character than Johnny Depp is for ''Captain'' Jack Sparrow! I shockingly have to admit that Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl was in fact the very first Johnny Depp film that I watched and it was a damn good film to start off with because although this role in the rest of the series as ''Captain'' Jack is perhaps his most overrated role but it certainly is one of his best performances! Like Johnny Depp, this was actually the first film I saw starring Geoffrey Rush in as well. His performance as Barbossa was just amazing! In a lot of ways, it was hard to believe that it was in fact an actor playing a pirate because he truly showed those evil, menacing and rather dirty features within the Barbossa character that is an honour towards those legendary pirate villains such as Long John Silver, Captain Hook amongst others. Rush is one of those actors and is perhaps the only actor who is neither overrated nor underrated because everyone knows Rush mostly for playing Barbossa but he didn't receive as much critical acclaim for his performance like Depp did.


After his admittedly decent performance as Legolas in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, it was exciting at the time to see Orlando Bloom star in another adventure but my oh my! Did he flop or what? Orlando's god-awful performance as Will Turner perfectly shows how an actor can kill a very crucial character in a series and possibly kill the entire series. His performance was the only flaw that I think this film had. Pretty much every single word that came out of his mouth was either forced or just empty with no heart and no desire whatsoever. I mean, I like the Will Turner character but Orlando was totally miscast for that role. I would have cast Heath Ledger as Will Turner if the casting was in my hands. As for Keira Knightley's role as Elizabeth Swann, this may be her breakthrough performance and perhaps her best known role and my personal favourite out of any other film she has been part of but I didn't find her performance itself entirely as amazing as expected. Well, it was better than Orlando's but not even close to Depp's and Rush's outstanding performances. Elizabeth Swann is a good character but in all honesty, Knightley may have had the looks for the character but in terms of acting, I think that they could have possibly cast somebody else. Kevin McNally and Jack Davenport deliver good underrated performances too.


Gore Verbinski; a guy who throughout the majority of his career up until the release of the first instalment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean has done almost nothing like he had ever done before (previously directed Mouse Hunt, The Mexican and The Ring) and now after this first film and the rest of the trilogy and some of the other films he has done, I have great respect for him now. He manages to achieve a task that might not have been able to work seeing as it is quite a dark story and still manages to make it fun enough for families and youngsters to enjoy. The script was brilliant as well by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio with some brilliant jokes and had a lot of great knowledge about pirates and the eras of when this film was set. Some moments weren't actually originally in the script such as ''Savvy?'' and one of the final quotes in the film: ''Bring me that horizon'' which were quotes from Johnny Depp as part of an idea during filming.


Overall, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl is a magical, hilarious and exciting adventure that will never be repeated and no matter how many films in the Pirates Of The Caribbean there will be, none of them will beat this one! Quite frankly after how this ended, I don't really think it needed to be a franchise but I'm glad they made a few sequels because they took us on different adventures over the seas and saw more new characters. It is definitely my favourite Disney live-action film and despite its one or two weaknesses, it is a great example for one to watch just for pure entertainment.

9/10