131) Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Director: Gore Verbinski

Starring: Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce

I haven't watched a Pirates of the Caribbean film for a few years. I really enjoyed the original, but for me, like many, the film was soured by it's increasingly disappointing sequels. After the surprise success of the first film, Disney wanted to squeeze more cash out of this idea, so a trilogy was slated. The problem was the first film was kind of intended to stand alone. The writers then had to create this elaborate story intended to follow on from the first one, integrating the story so as to make it seem as though it was always intended to be part one of a three part story. The second film was underwhelming. The third was downright awful (seriously, could anyone follow that narrative?). As a result, I hadn't really felt inspired to go back, but tonight Kate and I were in the mood for something escapist to the max, so gave it another go.

Swordsmith Will Turner (Bloom) has to team up with eccentric pirate Cpt. Jack Sparrow (Depp) to try and rescue his beloved Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) from Cpt. Barbosa (Rush) and his crew of scallywags. They have taken Elizabeth believing that she is the key to breaking the Aztec spell which has Barbosa and his crew existing in a state of living death. As the one-time Captain of Barbosa's ship, the Black Pearl, before he was abandoned to die after a mutiny, Sparrow is Turner's only chance to catch them, but Sparrow is a pirate, which makes trusting him problematic.

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is a real marker of the times in Hollywood. Since the 1980s original ideas have been seen as secondary to pre-sold commodities. Hollywood wants films which already have an existing market. As such we've had Hollywood film adaptations of books, plays, comics, television shows, computer games and even board games, but this was the first time a film had been based on an amusement park ride, and low and behold it turned out to be a money spinner. It has becomes one of the highest grossing trilogies of all time, with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End the ninth highest grossing film ever with a worldwide box office of US$958.4 million, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest the fourth highest grosser with a worldwide box office of US$1,060.6 million. I'm sure there were a fair few Hollywood executives who did a quick Google search of amusement park rides after the first film hit, just to see if there was anything else out there worth having a go at.

The x-factor in this film is so obviously Johnny Depp. Arguing that pirates were the rock stars of their day, he famously modelled his performance on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, and took the character of Jack Sparrow in a completely different direction to what the writers had intended. And thank God he did. It is Depp's characterisation as Sparrow which sets the fun, comic tone for this film. Had he chosen to play it straight, much like every other hero pirate in cinema history (think Errol Flynn), Pirates of the Caribbean would have been a dry movie. He turned a few heads with this performance when he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor, unheard of for this type of movie. But when you watch the film you can understand why. His unique, creative performance provides the spark. Unfortunately, everything that was fresh and different about his performance in the first film seems to become a bit more predictable in the sequels. Perhaps it is a case of Depp bringing a little bit of magic to the first film and then a team of writers trying to recreate that magic from there on in.

Geoffrey Rush is great as Captain Barbosa, showing his flair as a comical character actor by doing what is effectively the most cliched pirate impression you've ever seen but making it work (there are plenty or "Yarr!"s but I can't recall hearing a "Shiver me timbers"). However, Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom are both a bit dull. This was the film that made her a star after she first appeared on the radar as the best friend in Bend it like Beckham, and it built on the profile Bloom had established in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But watching it a few years down the track, when neither of them are the flavour of the month anymore, I just felt they were a bit... bland.

I don't hold high hopes for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. They've assembled a decent cast. I think Penelope Cruz could sizzle in a pirate movie in a way which Kiera Knightley failed to, and I think Ian McShane as Blackbeard is a masterstroke, but I can't help but feel the whole project reeks of flogging a dead horse. The last film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, was a bit of a stinker, and it just seems as though this film is only getting made to get Depp to do Sparrow again (which I'm surprised that he's actually agreed to do). Who am I kidding though. I'm still going to see it when it comes out. I'll just complain about it if it's crappy.

If you can divorce it from the disappointments of it's sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl stands up as a really fun adventure movie. It is probably the best in it's genre since the Indiana Jones trilogy. It's got that great combination of a little bit of comedy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of romance and an absolute bucket load of action and adventure which makes for a fun movie experience. It's dangerous though. If you go back and watch the first one again you could get swept up in it and be tricked into watching numbers two and three again.