Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2007, Blu-ray Disc)

While I selected "reveals major details about the movie's plot" I don't think I say anything you don't catch from the previews; and even if I do - well there is nothing new to the story here.

Wednesday hubby asked me if I wanted to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. I told him no, not really as I had little to no desire to see it. It looked like it could be seriously cheesy to me. So hubby made plans to see it that evening with his friends. Their plans fell through and he was disappointed yet knew he'd catch it in theaters soon enough.

Today hubby asks me if I want to go out with a co-worker of his and the co-workers wife. They were going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and invited us to join them. I said sure as even though I didn't think I'd really enjoy the movie itself it would be fun to go out and meet some new people.

Huh? What? Who?

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is based on - not a book, not another movie or a play even. Nope, it's based on a Disney ride of all things! It would appear that this is a new trend from Disney that we'll be seeing more of. We saw a preview for "The Haunted House" starring Eddie Murphy before Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl began. "The Haunted House" does not look nearly as good as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is certainly not a short movie by any means. I'd figured an hour and half, after all, it's Disney, right? Wrong. We were surprised to find ourselves walking to our car a good 2.5 hours after the movie started. While it was rather long I can't say it felt like it. There wasn't even one moment during the movie that I was wondered if it was going to end soon. There wasn't even one moment when I wondered "Why did they even put this in the movie?".

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is rated PG-13 due to there being some violence in it. It is a pirate/action/adventure film. Since there are people turning into skeletons and then back again with the blink of an eye, this movie is really not for very young children. I put this in my review as this is something someone should have told the women sitting behind us. No joke, there were a good 7 kids behind us with 2 moms. The oldest of which was not older than 4. Need I even say having a 2 year old kick my bad back every 5 minutes isn't pleasant? And having a 4 year old constantly tell his mom he's thirsty was also less than fabulous.

Ok, so what's this flick about anyway? Well, it's about....... big surprise, pirates. The delicious Orlando Bloom plays Will Turner. As a boy, Will is saved from the sea by Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), her Father (Jonathan Pryce), and crew. Will and Elizabeth grow up with great affection for each other which they aren't really allowed to show as he is a simple blacksmith and she is the Governor's daughter.

One day a pirate, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) comes to town. Being that he is a pirate, he is arrested and set to hang which is what they do to pirates being that they are so civilized and all. While Jack Sparrow is in jail a large ship of pirates comes to invade and destroy the town. They kidnap Elizabeth.

There is more to it than that, there's a pirates curse, all manner of antics and adventures and honestly I think you can guess what happens because again, this is Disney. What happens to Elizabeth? Will she get rescued and if so, who will rescue her? Will? Or the man society wants her to marry?

The story is really nothing we haven't seen before and that is the only thing I can even try to say is a con. The story, the acting, the special effects and well, everything is done so well that it doesn't matter that we've all seen the story before and know what's going to happen before it does. There is no time to sit and think about how this story has been done many times before. It doesn't matter, it's just fun to watch everything happen.

More of my thoughts

I'm still surprised at how much I enjoyed watching Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It was just pure fun! It's been a long time since a really good action adventure movie such as this was made and the cast, I must say were pure genius.

Johnny Depp: He's not my favorite person, I never had the Depp crush, but he was amazing in this. He had an accent for the movie and it wasn't annoying and didn't seem fake. He didn't lose his accent from time to time during the movie like some actors *cough Kevin Costner cough* tend to do. He was hilarious to watch, it was like he was tipsy for the entire movie. And next to eyeing the lovely Orlando Bloom, Depp was the best thing about the movie.

Orlando Bloom: One word: Legolas. Another word: Yum. Ok, that aside, he can act. Playing Legolas in Lord of the Rings was not a fluke apparently as the boy really can act. He was highly believable as good guy Will Turner. I can't say his character in this movie was as awesome or fun to watch as Legolas was, but he did good. Very good.

Keira Knightly: She is gorgeous, she can act and she can scream. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this English actress before, and I'd love to see her in something again.

Geoffrey Rush: He plays the cursed Pirate Captain Barbossa and he is the epitome of evil. From his scraggly hair and beard, to his insanely nasty looking teeth and dead pan, glassy, blood shot eyes, he was Captain Barbossa. There was no question about it. He isn't who I would have cast in this role, but then, that's probably just one of the many reasons why I am not a casting director.

The special effects were very well done. I wasn't sure how they'd manage to make the cursed pirates become skeletons in the moon light and then back to human like figures when not in the moon light. I was sure that like the movie in general, these effects would look cheesy. I am happy to tell you that I was very wrong on both counts.

bops_mom's Recommendation

If you enjoy action adventure films you should definitely catch Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl while it's still in theaters. It's worth the price of admission - hubby is already talking about how he's buying it on DVD when it comes out. He really wanted to see it and yet even he says it was much better than he'd thought. If you have school age children who don't scare easily and are debating between seeing this and Sinbad, skip Sinbad (it wasn't all that) and see this. It really is that good. There's no cheese within, just fabulous acting, some laughs and an enjoyable 2.5 hours to be had.


Thanks for reading!

~ Melissa :o)