I watched this in the cinema as a kid and loved it! Still do in 2017!
Always fun, always humorous and always the right time to see it again and again.
What an incredibly good film. The first film I ever rewatched in the cinema. Still amazing in 2019.
"This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!"
It has been awhile since I've seen the Curse of the Black Peal and I still can't believe it they made such a great film out of a theme park ride. Incredible.
Johnny Depp shines as Captain Jack Sparrow in his best outing as the character, Geoffrey Rush is the great Yang to Depp's Ying, Orlando Bloom is always fun in a fantasy setting and Kiera Knightley is always a delight to see. But don't tell anyone I like Kevin R. McNally as Gibbs the most!
The first film in this franchise is a fun ride that builds up a great pirate world. The sequels I haven't seen in a long long time too and I've never seen the fifth installment but I'm here to sail these seas this year.
"Drink up me 'earties. Yo ho."
One of the most entertaining movies I've watched in a long, long time. Johnny Depp is absolutely brilliant. The special effects were over-the-top, and there were actual scenes that were highly reminiscent of the old Pirates of the Caribbean ride from Disneyland (at least, the one I remember from many years ago). Definitely recommend this one!
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) https://trakt.tv/movies/pirates-of-the-caribbean-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl-2003
Dead Man's Chest (2006) https://trakt.tv/movies/pirates-of-the-caribbean-dead-man-s-chest-2006
At World's End (2007) https://trakt.tv/movies/pirates-of-the-caribbean-at-world-s-end-2007
On Stranger Tides (2011) https://trakt.tv/movies/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-2011
Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) https://trakt.tv/movies/pirates-of-the-caribbean-dead-men-tell-no-tales-2017
First time I've ever watched it, and I loved every second of it! Depp's acting seals the deal!
[7.9/10] It’s hard to say what makes a perfect popcorn film. It has to be light without feeling weightless. It has to be exciting without feeling overly serious. It has to have thrills and spills without just becoming another action movie. It’s an unexpectedly difficult tightrope to walk, one that more than a few films stumble over, seeming too airy, maudlin, or dull.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, on the other hand, walks it superbly, despite its now-most iconic character’s wandering gait. The movie features swashbuckling skirmishes and grand set pieces, romance and drama, and sly humor and pace to keep the project light on its feet. Despite a few overlong or muddled stretches, it’s tailor-made for the summer adventure flick crowd, hitting those pleasure centers in your brain and forcing the world beyond ships and scallywags to disappear for a couple of hours.
Of course, the grand buccaneering shadow cast by the film comes in the form of Jack Sparrow (pardon me, Captain Jack Sparrow). It remains doubtful that, whatever the undeniable cultural impact of the character, he justified a half dozen increasingly indulgent and unnecessary further adventures. And yet, he is unquestionably a major part of what makes the first Pirates movie work, back when he was a sideshow and not the main event.
Much of that is just Johnny Depp’s performance. He flounces and sports wry smiles and delivers every line with a hint of sarcasm and whimsy that makes Sparrow spring off the screen. But he also serves an important structural and thematic role in the film. He is an agent of chaos, one who not only disrupts the staid pecking orders of both the British Navy and the Pirates’ Code, but who throws thrilling monkey wrenches (sometimes at actual monkeys) into what might otherwise be a fairly standard adventure story. His mere presence as a wildcard in the proceedings adds another pole amid the dashing hero, damsel in distress, and dastardly villain who fill out the other major players in the movie.
But he also represents freedom. That’s the closest thing a popcorn flick like Pirates has to a point. Self-actualization means breaking free of both state and expectation and following your favored wind wherever it pushes your sails. For both Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, who are penned in by their society-limited existences, he’s walking proof that there’s an alternative out there if you abide only by what you’re capable of, not what the world says you can or should or oughtn’t to do.
Even if Sparrow had never existed, Pirates thrives on the back of a sharp, funny, well-built script. Much of the film’s success comes from that perfect balancing of tone, injecting enough sardonic humor to make the more melodramatic parts easier to swallow, acknowledge the inherent goofiness of the ideas at play without explicitly winking at them, and keep the movie feeling nimble and light even when it turns into a horror movie. It’s apt to let Depp and Geoffrey Rush engage in ham-to-ham combat, adding in stakes without taking itself too seriously.
That speaks to the smart construction of the movie. Say what you will about basing a feature film on a theme park ride as IP, but every character in this movie wants something and the search for it defines and changes them. Jack wants his ship, his captaincy, and his revenge. Barbosa wants to be rid of his curse and to feel again. Elizabeth wants a life more grand and adventurous than the wife of a rich commodore. Will wants...well...Elizabeth, but more than that, to prove his worthiness and come into his own beyond being an apprentice to a drunken lazy blacksmith. The movie sets all of this up early, bounces the characters off of one another in different combinations, and lets their wants and wishes drive the action and the choices of the film.
The script is remarkably efficient at setting this all up and letting it play out. Exposition is dropped in amusing and/or character-revealing conversations rather than unceremoniously doled out. Twists in the narrative come through at a good cadence, creating new challenges for Elizabeth, Will, Jack, and others. And the movie is chock full of great little setups, payoffs, and running gags. The mention of a name, complaints about corsets, simple phrases and daring sword-throws and even pieces of fruit take on new meanings and contexts as the movie progresses, with a sort of echoing, call and response between moments. Pirates works when you’re half-paying attention to it, but there’s attention to detail to be taken in when you’re apt to look closer.
Director Gore Verbinski marries that sturdy script with some rousing visuals. The world of Port Royal, Tortuga, and Isla de Muerta are fully realized here, a melange of ruddy bilge rats, clean and pristine offers, and massive ships that cause the two to intersect. The movie makes the most of its ghost story conceit, using the peeking rays of moonlight to produce all manner of creative sequence featuring memorable skeletal designs for its baddies.
But beyond the CGI fireworks, Verbinski and company come up with any number of energetic and engrossing set pieces. From all types of sword fights, to grand chases and escapes, to ship to ship combat, the film’s cinematographers and editors stage each with infectious alacrity. There’s character in the actionier scenes, with wry swashbuckling conversations, almost slapstick interludes, and memorable moves and personality injected into what could otherwise be empty spectacle.
At times, the movie overindulges on this front, with some sequences, even well done ones, running too long. Likewise, the middle portion of the film tends to sag, as the stakes and goals start to get crossways and you can feel Pirates straining to connect its boffo beginning with its rollicking climax. As much as this movie punches up what could have easily been a generic adventure story with character and a delightfully arch sensibility, it occasionally gets stuck in the mud around the halfway mark of its journey.
Still, despite some of the usual foibles, the first Pirates movie is so much better than it ever had to be. An animatronics-filled boat ride-turned-feature film could have easily been another spate of disposable entertainment. Instead, Curse of the Black Pearl ascended to the ranks of the crowd-pleasing blockbuster champions, blending laughs with excitement, action with character, and the usual adventure setup with unique spins on the material. The great popcorn movie is deceptively difficult to achieve, but Jack Sparrow’s first voyage succeeds with flying colors.
Keira Knightly is an angel!
You can say what you will about the films that followed it but the first Pirates of the Caribbean are as fun as blockbusters get. Its a perfect mix of several different genres. The action still holds up and there is still a decent amount of simple but effective humor. I really wish they could replicate this level of quality.
I delayed watching this movie for years because I thought that I was not going to like it. Now I watched it and I LOVE it.
i love ithis movie it is whenderful
Believe it or not but it took me 12 years to finally watch this. Maybe I should have watched it earlier, maybe it´s just not my kind of movie, but I wasn´t overly impressed. Production is great, CGI still looks pretty good and Johnny Depp is awesome but personally I found the story rather thin.
Nevertheles it was entertaining and I will watch the rest of the series.
one of my favorite movies
My favorite movies of all time!! YOU WANNA LOVE JOHNNY DEPP!!
Best pirate movie of all time
What? No... We can't stop here... This is bat country
Watched this film because of the Disney ride and was amazed at how they've managed to make a film franchise around an attraction. It is such a good film, very well made and Jack Sparrow aka Johnny Depp makes the whole thing with his comedy.
The funniest action movie I know with a "larger than life" performance of Johnny Depp as "Captain Jack Sparrow".
The fast paced action flick features some nice plot-twists and a very special humour makes this one of the best movies, ever!
One of the greatest adventure movies of all time!
Knightley girl would be hotter if she weighed 20 more lbs.
Saw this in theaters (my note).
They just don’t make them how they used to
Best PotC back then and still the best to this day! It captures the balance of a grand adventure and light-hearted comedy unlike any of the sequels. While I certainly don't love this genre as much as many, it makes sense why this spawned into one of the biggest franchises ever with many sequels.
Rating: 4/5 - 85% - Would Recommend
Perhaps one of the best adventure films I’ve seen. And (Captain) Jack Sparrow - perhaps one of the most charismatic and loveable protagonists to ever grace (or, more aptly, stumble around in) a pirate film.
Classic, characters/scenes/story are so good. Watched again w Nick/Rebz
Someone on Twitter made a fan edit of this called The Monkey Island Cut where they edited out Jack Sparrow. So now I can finally watch this Keira Knightley film without the wifebeater <3
In these skirmishes of sailing ships there is always something that catches the eye. ;)
The movie that created the legend of Jack Sparrow.
The performance of Johnny Depp gave birth to an unpredictable and funny character that we can't help but love. His charisma makes him a scene-stealer but the other characters are still interesting enough to be able to entertain us without having to rely solely on Jack.
I liked the identity crisis of Will between his life as a blacksmith who forgot his past and his life as the son of a pirate. In this movie he is the typical heroic protagonist who wants to save his love but the path he chooses at the end promises to show something else in the future from him. Elizabeth is a damsel in distress for the most part but she progressively shows that she doestn't hesitate to fight when necessary and try to be helpful instead of hiding herself like her father wants her to. She can be annoying sometimes but not to the point of being despicable. Finally, the other character that made a big impression on me is Barbossa, I couldn't really hate him and I pitied him because I understood his motivations even if he had it coming and the curse was the result of his greediness.
To conclude, I would say that I love this adventure movie and to me this is the best of this franchise because it is the less complicated one and it doesn't have to add a lot of twists and turns to be entertaining.
“You're off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters.”
Jack sparrow has to be one of the most charismatic characters in a movie
"I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."
I am changing my rating on this because going back and watching the first one reminded of how good it is. Somehow they are able to balance humor, chaos and multiple storylines all together and make it look really cool. Having a fun and good story helps too.
THE BETTER: ‘PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL’
WRITING: 85
ACTING: 100
LOOK: 90
SOUND: 100
FEEL: 100
NOVELTY: 100
ENJOYMENT: 95
RE-WATCHABILITY: 100
INTRIGUE: 90
EXPECTATIONS: 100
THE GOOD:
This remains one of the funniest, most exhilarating and inventive pirate adventure films ever made. It's still as enjoyable and fun as back when I first watched it. This film feels like Hollywood’s golden age reinvigorated.
Gotta love Johnny Depp's iconic performance as Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush's equally delicious take on Barbossa and Orlando Bloom's classically dashing and heroic take on the Hollywood film hero. These characters have become institutions; they are honest takes on the classic hero and villain types, while also being unique and memorable.
Meticulous production design, great practical effects, polished CGI and inventive stunt work still hold up today. There are several CGI-heavys sequences here that still look fairly good and the detailed production design, make-up and costuming is delicious.
There are so many memorable scenes, classic one-liners and exciting sequences that these alone make this film a modern classic.
Hans Zimmer’s classic score is the closest thing to John Williams-levels of greatness any contemporary film composer has ever come.
Despite not being entirely historically accurate, the historical world and characters depicted feel realistic, with a hint of Disney magic thrown in for an extra adventure.
THE BAD:
Still rocking that myth of plank walking, eh?
THE UGLY:
I guess this is the most successful adaptation of a theme park ride ever made.
THE VERDICT:
The first Pirates-film is a love letter to classic adventure cinema, while also remaining an exciting, fun and memorable swashbuckler for a whole new generation of moviegoers.
96% = :white_check_mark::white_check_mark: = BETTER
Have watched more times than I can count... Never gets old
The Curse of the Black Pearl transports you to a daring pirate adventure without the need to dumb anything down for the audience. It's witty, dramatic, and plain fun to watch. The characters are alive, and we're treated to possibly the best soundtrack ever written.
Seriously, this movie is near perfect in execution. Even the CGI holds up tremendously well. It's the perfect blend of witty and serious, dark and light. One of the best adventure movies out there, period.
Really good film with an excellent play by Jack Sparrow. But lets face it: The best part of this whole saga is the soundtrack by Klaus Badelt & Hans Zimmer!
Depp is crazy good. One of my favorite franchises
First one of a franchise and you gotta give it to em, it is quite entertaining
This is a fantastic movie full action, adventure, humor and a hell of a lot more! The film is 2 hours and 40 minutes long, but that time flies by as you are transported into an awesome world of swashbuckling and sword fights. Depp's deft performance gives us a memorable character, one that is perhaps unique in cinema history.
The best of the three
As far as im concerned, this is an curse of monkey island adaption.
Arrrrrr, can't wait for The 4th in the series. No 234 on imdb at the moment for good reason. But then, who hasn't seen it yet that I'm preaching to?
Shout by ShayVIP 3BlockedParent2022-05-09T07:38:27Z— updated 2023-07-17T21:27:57Z
dropping by to leave my raving review and support johnny's work -
johnny's character makes this entire show and pirates is nothing without him. jd brings so much authenticity and vibrancy to his characters that it's impossible to ignore his talent. he's brought so much of his own craftsmanship and creativity into building and creating the captain jack sparrow that i can't imagine anyone else playing the part.
nearly 20 years later and this movie still stands up. i love it.
also shout out to that elementary school friend i had who would obsessively rewatch this show with me when we were kids and wrote a script for pirates 2 with me. we thought we were gonna make it big. i remember you boo!