yakkowarner's Full Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black P...
When I first heard that Disney was going to make a movie called "Pirates of the Caribbean" I laughed and thought it was a joke. How are you going to make a good movie based on a simple ride. Well they did and it turned out pretty good, good enough that I bought the DVD when it came out.
The plot There is a group of pirates that are searching for a certain treasure. This treasure just happens to be in the hands of a young lady named Elizabeth Swann. The pirates want her, her blood, and her treasure. But it does get a little more complicated then that, but I'm not spoiling anything else for ya.
The acting The acting over all is very well done and it can easily be argued that this was the strongest part of the movie. The acting by Johnny Depp is absolutely breath taking. He takes the role and runs with it. I consider him to be the greatest film actor of his generation and I love his work. I feels as if he can play any person in any role. Compare him in this film with Willy Wonka and Edward Scissorhands, three completely different characters that normally would have to be played by three type cast actors. Not in this case, Johnny Depp can do it all. Orlando Bloom plays Will Turner a blacksmith's apprentice. Orlando plays off of Johnny Depp very well and makes Will a person full of emotion and internal conflict, balancing out Johnny Depp's role. I had an issue at first with thinking of him as the elf, but not after the first 10 minutes. After that time I had seen enough of his acting that his performance in this movie washed away that memory. (He played Legolas in LOTR) He played the role of a boy becoming a man perfectly. Keira Knightley plays Elizabeth Swann. A strong and confident personality. As a character she played it as an equal. No diminutive treatment here. Her character, acting, and presence matched everyone around her. I feel she is a true actor and a brilliant performer. Jonathan Pryce plays Governor Weatherby Swann. He was the lead in Brazil so I already have a fondness for him and I like his role in Tomorrow Never Dies. So I am already a fan but he played a difficult role that was important, but not one of the three main characters. This can be difficult at times but he made the Governor both a dominant personality and a part of the humor
The story and writing This could be considered the second strong point of the film. You have a good written script to contend with that both made for great dialog and an engaging story. The beautiful thing about this aspect of the film is it clearly tells you the details of the story (you are not confused about what is going on), the dialog makes sense, the writing is unique for each character and shows the differences between their education and place in society, the writing adds depth to the characters, and it adds just the right amount of humor to a mostly action based movie (ya I know it's a run on sentence, just roll with it). I kind of think of it as Star Wars with better writing and less special effects, it has a lot of the same hero/mythological elements. And it has better actors too, can't forget that :)
The character development This I would consider another strong point to the film. And if I am giving character development high praise then you know they developed the character through a bit of action and not just dialog. In this movie that would be the case. You got to know the characters and their emotion by how they acted, not through boring monologue or dragged out scenes of boredom.
The pacing The pacing is nearly flawless. You are engaged the entire way once it gets going. Things like plot development and character development have a tendency to slow things down, but they wrote it in such a way that this is not an issue with this film. I love this about the film. One way they got around this was a lot of the character development was done by the person's actions and not their words. You truly didn't know the blacksmith apprentice really was the master until you saw him, words were not needed. You knew who captain Jack Sparrow was through his actions, not his words. In my opinion this is the way to build characters and this is the model movie in showing how to do just that.
The special effects They are absolutely beautiful. I can't say flawless because of some minor gripes (and little things here and there look dated), but it is pretty close. They did a good job on the bones and bone structure of the characters. Even the movement is pretty good but not perfect.
Replay value High. This is a great movie I can watch at the drop of a hat.
Should children watch it? It could be scary for some children due to the beautiful computer graphics of the pirates. I have no problem with my children watching it but my wife does so my kids haven't seen it.
Genre: Action/Adventure
The key players Director: Gore Verbinski Writers: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, & Jay Wolpert Music: Klaus Badelt
My End Line. This is one of the great movies released in this decade. It is engaging and entertaining the whole way through. You develop emotions for the characters. You also want to cheer for the good guys. The only thing I felt was lacking was more development/attention to the human condition.
A pirate and a proper lady team up to stop a dangerous band of pirates who are trying to break an ancient curse that keeps them trapped in between lif...More at HotMovieSale.com
From producer Jerry Bruckheimer comes Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the thrilling, high-seas adventure with a mysterious twi...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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