Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Review

In the mood for a swashbuckling adventure that truly captures the spirit of adventure with riveting excitement throughout? Well, look no further than Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl the 2003 film directed by Gore Verbinski starring Johnny Depp as the down on his luck pirate Jack Sparrow. In this adventure Jack Sparrow must team up with honest blacksmith Will Turner played by Orlando Bloom to save the governor’s daughter Elizabeth Swann played by Kiera Knightley who has been kidnapped by Sparrow’s rival Barbossa another pirate who along with his crew has been placed under an ancient curse that causes them to be neither alive nor dead who are in search of the cure to their state of imprisonment. The tale is one of great intrigue and fun to entertain audiences around the world with the great characters that take the stage here.

Great characters envelop this tale with great actors that bring them to life in this film. Johnny Depp is excellent as Jack Sparrow a narcissistic down on his luck pirate. The writers do a good job of presenting the character of Sparrow of one of interest who is deeply flawed. The other lead in the film Will Turner is effectively played by Orlando Bloom who brings an honest authentic shy everyman romantic type character to life in his character. Will Turner is pining for Elizabeth Swann, the governor’s daughter and Orlando Bloom to great effect captures the feelings and emotions that would be associated with that role in his performance. Other strong cast members include Kevin McNally as Gibbs a pirate loyal to Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa who makes for a great foil to Sparrow. Keira Knightley makes for an effective love interest to Will, but also stands strong on her own and has a magnetic presence and bravado to her that she proves when she stands up to Barbossa and interacts with the scoundrel of a pirate that Sparrow is. Other honorable mentions in this rich cast include Jonathan Pryce as Governor Swann, a man so timid yet so caring for his daughter and Jack Davenport as Norrington, a lead military force under the governor who sports affection for Elizabeth who he wishes to marry very much. The rich cast in this film helps to create an exciting mixture of personalities and create conflict in the adventure.

Conflict is executed well as we have Sparrow a character that could be argued to be in conflict with himself and the world as he interacts with all the colorful characters that make up the ensemble. Sparrow has lost his ship the Black Pearl now run by his rival who used to be his ally, Barbossa who to complicate matters is under a curse. The writers use conflict in such strides in this matter to create an exciting element to keep the story moving forward. The writers certainly perfected the relationship between Sparrow and Will by not making it a get along good type relationship which could have ended up very boring. Instead, the two are like water and fire, one detests the other and the other can’t help but see how he can manipulate the other due to an inherent quality in the other in which the other ironically detests. The chemistry flows well between Will and Elizabeth but it isn’t forced into immediate romanticism which would have felt cheap but is allowed to develop. Conflict is wedged in there as chemistry is hinted at between Sparrow and Elizabeth which helps to make the characters more than one-dimensional and bring a certain intrigue to the characters interactions amongst each other. Furthermore, the conflict that brings the plot to life brings to life the element of adventure so well executed.

Adventurism is a fun element to be explored in the cinema and Curse of the Black Pearl certainly doesn’t falter with it. Sparrow and his flaws could have been portrayed in a story with a dark and depressing tone but instead a fun light has been cast upon it and the flawed Sparrow along with the seemingly ordinary blacksmith Will face the conflict that interjects itself in their life with the best of themselves and rise to great heights in heroism even though they themselves may not be so heroic. The plot throws in twists and turns to keep the audience excited and through its characters, the audience stays invested in the exciting plot elements because they care about the characters. The nature of the story is unconventional because it strays beyond ordinary historic realism and into the element of the supernatural which is great for this film because it elevates the feeling of adventure to new heights because it makes the audience feel like they are being introduced to a new world which is what adventure is all about exploration and discovery.

The results of Verbinski’s work in this film are intrinsic and wonderful to look at because of the exciting adventure that is the result of it. The cinema has always been about escapism for people and this film doesn’t fail to provide that by introducing them to a new world through a historically familiar setting and flooding it with great characters. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is a great exciting riveting adventure tale that I am assigning a score of 9/10.