THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you’re not calling for an adventure, it can call to you when you least expect it.
PLOT
Based on the Disney Parks attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl takes place in the 1700s. In 1720, Elizabeth Swann, daughter of Governor Weatherby sail to Port Royal, led by the crew of Captain James Norrington. As they sail, they find a boy named Will Turner surviving a shipwreck. When Elizabeth meets him, she finds a gold medallion and assumes he’s a pirate. She keeps it from him to prevent him from being treated as such. 8 years later, both would grow to be adults in different paths. Elizabeth would continue living a royal life with her father, whereas Will would make a living as a blacksmith. After Norrington gets promoted from captain to Commodore, he would propose for her hand in marriage. Before she could answer, she would faint and fall into the sea, as a result of wearing an over-tightened corset. Thankfully, she would be rescued by Captain Jack Sparrow who had arrived in Port Royal with the intent of commandeering a ship. However, the man is chased away when identified as a pirate, resulting in his escape being halted by Will and becomes imprisoned. By night, his ship the Black Pearl arrives in Port Royal, filled with many pirates searching for the medallion that summoned a pulse into the water when it fell with Elizabeth into the water. She does get taken to the captain Hector Barbossa, but conceals her identity as the governor's daughter by claiming the last name of Turner. She negotiates a parley to cease their attack in exchange for the medallion. He technically agrees but keeps her as prisoner, believing she could be the key to an ancient curse they're under. When Will finds out what happened to Elizabeth, he recruits Sparrow to rescue her. The pirate only agrees only after learning his identity. Once they steal the HMS Interceptor to commandeer, they head to Tortuga to recruit a crew that'll better their odds against Barbossa. With the help of former Royal Navy boatswain Joshamee Gibbs, the crew includes: Anamaria (Zoe Saldana), Marty (Martin Klebba), Cotton (David Bailie), Crimp (Craig Thompson), Duncan (M Scott Shields), Kursar (Mike Haberecht), Ladbroc (Christopher Sullivan), Moises (Felix Castro), Tearlach (Gerard J Reyes) and Matelot (Rudolph McCloam). En route to Isla de Muerta, Gibbs shares Jack's past: he was the original captain of the Pearl and when sharing the bearings of a hidden chest of Aztec gold coins, his first mate Barbossa mutinied against him and deserted him on an island. Although he was able to escape 3 days later, the crew of the Pearl quickly realized the gold was cursed and turned everyone into skeletal beings, only revealed through moonlight. The only supporter Jack had at the time was Will's father Bootstrap Bill, who sent a medallion to him years prior to keep the curse from being broken. When Barbossa found out what he did, he was thrown overboard for it but his blood is needed to break the curse. Barbossa has kept Elizabeth because he believes she can do so. At the same time, he explains to her the origin of the curse: The coins once belonged to conquistador Hernan Cortes, who accepted the treasure as payment to prevent the Fall of Tenochtitlan but never fulfilled his part of the bargain. As a result, Aztec gods cursed the treasure. The only way it can be broken is if a coin is stained with a taker's blood or the blood of the taker's direct relative, hence the need of Bootstrap Bill's descendant. When the Pearl reaches Isla de Muerta first, Barbossa stains her blood on a coin and discover her to not be a Turner when no one dies. Luckily, Will arrives via Interceptor and picks her up, only to intentionally leave Jack behind, after overhearing his intent to trade him for the Pearl. However, Jack still uses parley to his advantage to try and take the Pearl back. This leads to Barbossa invading the Interceptor and apprehending the whole crew. Will would try and maintain the upper hand by demanding that Elizabeth and the crew to be spared, threatening to take his life if not. Hector again technically agrees by imprisoning the crew and deserting Jack with Elizabeth in the same island he escaped before, Rumrunner's Isle. Believing to be rid of his obstacles, the captain turns back to Isla de Muerta. Knowing help is needed, Elizabeth starts a signal fire with stashed rum which alerts HMS Dauntless, in which Norrington and her father are searching her in. She tells the commodore of Barbossa and accepts her marriage proposal in exchange for saving Will. Jack sneaks back into Isla de Muerta and spares time for Will by telling Hector of the Dauntless, giving the Pearl's crew a chance to ambush them before the curse if lifted. Elizabeth is able to infiltrate the Pearl to free Gibbs and Jack's crew, but they refuse to help their captain as they were owed a ship. As they leave with the Pearl, she heads into the island on her to save Will. As Hector's cursed crew takes on the crew of the Dauntless, he duels with Jack while Will and Elizabeth kill three other pirates who stayed with their captain. Jack and Will are able to break the curse by returning the last coins with their blood. At the same time, Sparrow shoots a now mortal Barbossa with his only bullet. As for the latter's remaining crew, most would either die from their wounds or get arrested by Norrington. Despite taking down an entire crew of pirates, Jack is still scheduled to be hanged in Port Royal for piracy. Surprisingly, he would be saved by Will who believes he deserves to live for his help against a common enemy. As Jack escapes and reunites with his crew via Pearl, Will and Elizabeth profess their love for each other in which Governor Weatherby and Norrington give their blessing. The film would end with the commodore declaring to give Sparrow a day's head start before pursuing him, as a sign of respect towards the pirate captain.
THOUGHTS
At the time of the film's release, I did not attend either Disney Park to be on the ride this movie is based on. Although I would eventually try it out and enjoy it as I got older, it didn't really change how mesmerized I was of this action packed extravaganza. Director Gore Verbinski brought fresh air in the adventure genre by putting us in a well crafted environment we never thought we'd take part of. Every duel and each chase is well edited by Craig Wood, Arthur Schmidht & Stephen E Rivkin. Unsurprisingly, we're in a period where it is a great combo of incredible production design and insane visual effects. Because with each location being so live like, it's visibly impressive when seeing the skeletal pirates. And you wouldn't be the only one creeped out of seeing a skeletal monkey. Thanks to dazzling cinematography by Dariusz Wolski, you almost feel like you're there as the madness is ensuing. The score by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer is so compelling, it's hard to deny being excited as the story goes in motion. After years of entertaining generations of audiences, this one has been able to remain impactful as long as it has for telling us something we never thought we'd learn from it. To me, it is trying to tell us that with each decision you choose to make, they must all be wise because you'll never know the true effect until it's too late. This theme is brought to my attention thanks to a diverse ensemble that have their own way in becoming such colorful characters due to incredible costumes designed by Toby Bronson & Penny Rose. For years, we've been asking ourselves how the hell did Johnny Depp score his first Oscar nomination as Captain Jack Sparrow? At first, it can be quick to dislike the character for being a trickster to everybody, but you respect him for being pretty good at it. He's so interesting because he's more about saving himself rather than saving the day. Him taking part of going against his enemy is just convenient for everyone involved. He knows he's doing the right thing, but doesn't entirely care. He's honestly smarter than we realize because he is able to find good use of his surroundings. If he wasn't able to do that, he would've not gotten off Rumrunner's Island the first time around. And I think that is where we like him more than we should. He is someone who is arguably winging it and has better luck than he anticipates. Yes not every decision sounds smart at first, but you can't help admitting the ones that work are genius. When he took gold for himself, he scored brief immortality to better his chances in dueling against Hector. He may never change, but that is a good thing on his end. We get comfortable seeing him go as low as he could because he teaches us we don't always need to change to benefit ourselves. In any case, being yourself is more important than being different. And that is where Depp steals our hearts as this character. So when he is able to escape death, you can't help rooting for him because you know he doesn't really deserve it compared to others who wouldn't make the same decisions as him. And by the time he picks up his compass again, we're already anticipating another adventure with him. In a certain case you can see Jack as a bad person, but then Hector can be worse. Geoffrey Rush is his own scene stealer for nailing the master conception we imagine of pirates. He's the most polished of characters because he's one who is no doubt cunning, willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. The only way we choose to feel any slight sympathy for him is that he feels nothing when being immortal and if you can't feel anything, there is no point to live and he doesn't want that said feeling. Having said that, it makes his demise all the more ironic when he feels his last breath. You want to be relieved as he is with his suffering reaching an end, but the surprise post credits of the monkey Jack taking the gold again, it only told us it was the beginning. If you weren't rooting for Jack, you likely were rooting for the ideal protagonist that is WIll. In the middle of capping off Lord of the Rings, Orlando Bloom makes another memorable protagonist because he's surprisingly a victim of circumstance. All he wants to do is reunite with his dad, only to find out he's connected to a traumatic curse. It bothers him to realize it's in his blood to be a pirate because it goes against his ideal of being a humble man. Nevertheless, he found a compromise where he can use such traits to his advantage. Even he knew Jack didn't deserve to die despite their differences. And if there is anything he differs from him, he's willing to give up his life for the greater good. From that, you know he was meant to be a great captain. With such traits in such a different period, it's hard for someone to have an equal. Luckily for Will, he didn't have to look too hard when he met Elizabeth. Long before her famed period dramas, Keira Knightley had us invested in her for not really hiding the adventurous spirit pirates are known to have. She grew up learning of these people and never had a reason to be afraid of them. And off of that, you respect her for being as firm as Will would be. Looking back, I think these two love each other because they see each other for who they are. Elizabeth sees Will for having a stronger grasp of leadership, whereas he looks past her beauty and sees exactly how free willing she is. Their relationship definitely defined the franchise and it was pleasant to see it start here. Kevin McNally had us interested in Gibbs as well for being the most reliable in his environment, which is not an easy feat. He is someone who knows the world better than others can and you can't argue the use of one with such knowledge. He stuck by Jack's side throughout here and the rest of the franchise because he knows he has his back and if you know your friends, there is no reason to leave them behind. Even though Barbossa was the main threat, that doesn't mean he was the only obstacle. I think Jack Davenport spiced things up whenever he was onscreen as Norrington for being a very distinguishable deuteragonist because he cares about his duties, but cares too much to the point where leniency feels illegal for him. He's worked so hard in his life where he deeply feels better than anyone, hence ignoring Will whenever possible. However, when it came down to encountering Jack, he accepted he wasn't the only one with his own set of skills. The respect is grudging because it's right and wrong for him to feel that way, which only makes the rest of hisarc very interesting from here on out. Last but not least, I think we all had a soft spot whenever Jonathan Pryce was present as Governor Weatherby. He was definitely in the middle of the chaos and while he never had a solution, you can't say he wasn't a smart guy. It's clear he earned his place as a governor he grew up to be a well organized man. And from there, that made him a caring father towards Elizabeth. Obviously, it wasn't an appropriate decision originally for almost arranging her to marry Norrington, but it's not like we don't know he's looking out for her. It was so easy for him to approve of Will by the end because all that mattered by the end was his daughter's happiness and he quickly noticed Will was enough for her. This film is always a blast to get through, but even fun stuff like this have questionable moments. For example, was it logical for Weatherby to tell Elizabeth to ‘take care of’ Will. She’s still a kid in the opening, so it’s not like she can do anything apart from accompanying him, the only thing that made sense for him to say at first. Also, if the medallion calls to the pirates from the Pearl, why don’t they attack the ship immediately rather than wait? If they’re cursed at that point, there’s no reason to avoid it. That’s not as believable as saying no one other than Elizabeth notices the Pearl only yards away. You guys know I hate continuity errors, so consider me rattled when noticing how during Jack’s entrance, he sticks his right foot out on one take, only for his left to take the first step on the next. And let’s be honest, Barbossa shouldn’t be worried of Elizabeth dropping the gold into the water when he and his crew are still undead, making them capable to breathe underwater to get it back. I know Barbossa wants to get rid of Jack, but was it really a good idea to leave him in the same island he already escaped? That’s like asking to have a splinter in a nail because it’s that ridiculous. And when did the crew fix the cells that got damaged? If they have spare doors for these cells incase they get damaged by conflict, I would like to see confirmation. And lastly, I’m honest when saying our heads were all exploding after spotting a guy with a cowboy hat within a frame of the ending. Other than that, this movie is still rad. In conclusion, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl earns its position to be an adventure classic for putting good use of pre written storytelling and expanding upon it. If you’re an adventure seeker, this’ll satisfy your needs.
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