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

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Gore Verbinski (The Ring, The Lone Ranger)
	Actors: Johnny Depp (The Ninth Gate, Transcendence), Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings 1-3), Keira Knighley (Love Actually)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 30.03.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: While Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) lands at Port Royal, his former crew on board the Black Pearl led by Barbossa (Rush) is called for by a golden coin owned by the Governor's daughter (Knighley). A coin that actually belongs to Will Turner (Bloom) who doesn't know yet he is a Pirate's son.
Review: A successful attempt at renewing the Pirate movie genre with this very free adaptation of a Disneyworld attraction, although on second thought it didn't lead to any other pirate movie out of this franchise that will eventually span six movies. After having seen The Curse of the Black Pearl many times, I don't appreciate it as much as the first, but I remember that it was quite nice back in 2003 to see some pirates, massive ships, cannon and sword fights with the extra fun of getting zombies and modern special effects of pretty good quality. In addition, a "Ménage à trois" of characters that are at the heart of the story, played by Keira Knighley (for those who like her looks), Orlando Bloom (similar but better than in the LOTR trilogy) and a Johnny Depp that we discovered playing his character in a delightfully exaggerated way (he has done it many more times since and the charm has passed). They try very hard to be funny or loveable and manage most of the time. What annoys me in the movie especially after several viewings is the length: it could have been shortened from 2,5 to less than 2 hours by cutting both dialogs and fight scenes equally. Also I found the music too invasive at times, this is still OK in this first movie but will disturb me more and more in the following ones. Also the jokes are sometimes too much, for example the repetitive dumb couples of Pirates and British guards. Well, the kids probably love it.
Rating: 6 /10