Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Last Watch Date - July 6, 2025
Total Times Watched - 3
Comments
Having returned from the Caribbean a week ago and my family LEAVING ME, I figured I'd pick a series to watch. I bought the first three on DVD a few years ago from 2nd & Charles and never rewatched them. TIME TO DO IT. This one was the one I remembered the best and always thought fondly of when hearing about pirates or the caribbean. Or Johnny Depp?
Going back to the first time I saw this, I was highly skeptical of a movie about a terrible ride. Pirate movies have been sorely lacking over the decades prior to this movie with the exception of Cutthroat Island (I need to rewatch this to make sure this is still true). I'm not a Disney person at all, but this was a good time period for Depp making movies. I knew Legolas from his time in Middle Earth and Geoffrey Rush from Les Miserables and House on Haunted Hill. I don't think I knew many of the other people at that point. I'm not convinced Keira Knightley is actually an actor. She's the weak spot in this one. Legolas isn't much better really. This is pretty much a Depp-Rush highlight reel. The dude who plays Norrington was also quite good.
My memory of this movie was much better than the reality, unfortunately. This movie drags in spots and has a very slow beginning. I'm not entirely sure why they focus so much on Will Turner's backstory, it is pretty inconsequential. In some ways it setup the sequels for what they'd become, but I'm not convinced they even thought of the sequels as they ended up when they were writing this movie. Maybe they expected Will would be the hero of the movie, but it never works out quite that way. It's a three musketeers sort of thing with Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann.
Of the three I watched, this movie's plot is by far the most sensible and cohesive. It also has the best CGI of the lot. That said, it's EXTREMELY dated looking. I don't know what they blew their budget on in this movie considering Lord of the Rings had better looking CGI years earlier that STILL holds up today. The skeleton crew looks cool at times and utterly ridiculous at others. I read that they wanted to bring the "scariness" of pirates along with the "fun" of pirate movies. I don't think they ever really lean into the scary aspect. It has too much of the Disney softening of the edges to really be as good as it could've been.
Have you ever seen the animated movie Anastasia from the 90s? It sort of looks like a Disney movie but it is not, and somehow it holds up way better than all of their "princess" movies. It has an edge to it, a certain lack of that Mickey Mouse nonsense that makes it timeless. This movie suffers from a case of Mickey Mouse syndrome.
Oh yeah, this movie is long too. It comes in at 2:23. That's just.. an absurd amount of time for what you get. It's like contracting someone to paint your bathroom and they say it will take three months. Why does it take so long? There's not enough meat on the bone in this story.
Recommended?
If you've never seen it, sure. Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow performance is iconic and Geoffrey Rush is an amazing pirate. Just know that it is more of a humorous swashbuckler than intense or scary.
