You Like Pain? Try Wearing A Corset!. Review on Pirates of the Caribbean Movie

Well continuing with my summer film fest on Monday I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. My entire usual crowd of cinemagoers rushed to see this on its release date but unfortunately I was on holiday and I was gutted. I later arranged to go with another group of friends and I was so excited. For months I have watched the trailers on websites and it looked amazing, plus if the film wasn't up to much there was still Orlando Bloom to stare at so I wasn't too worried.

I was extremely surprised to learn that this film was being distributed by Disney as it wasn't a typical Disney sort of film but after about an hour of thought I remembered back to year eight when I was on a visit to Disneyland Paris there was a theme park ride called Pirates of the Caribbean and there was the link! Since it was two years back when I braved to go on the ride I don’t remember too much about it except from the rude ride supervisor and the Americans sitting in front but that’s a whole different story! Anyway what I was heading towards is the film is based on the theme park ride.

~~THE CAST~~

''Captain'' Jack Sparrow - Johnny Depp

Elizabeth Swann - Keira Knightley

Will Turner - Orlando Bloom

Captain Barbossa - Geoffrey Rush

Commodore Norrington - Jack Davenport

Governor Weatherby Swann – Jonathan Pryce

Director – Gore Verbinski (The Ring, The Mexican)

Producer – Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon)

Runtime – 143 minutes

Certification – 12A

~~THE PLOT~~

The film is set in the 17th century. The film opens with a little girl singing during a crossing from America to England. Whilst standing the little girl spots a boy floating in the water amongst ruins of a ship that has been destroyed in battle. The boy is dragged on board and left for the little girl to care for. She discovers that his name is William Turner. Others onboard the ship go in search for other survivors in the wreckage that lays ahead of them. The young girl spots a necklace around the boy’s neck and so takes a closer look. She sees that it bears a symbol-meaning pirate so she removes the necklace from the boy’s neck in fear of his safety.

We soon learn that the young girl was Elizabeth Swann. The story progresses to six years onwards and Elizabeth keeps the necklace at the bottom of her drawer. She wakes up and she places the necklace around her neck. Will Turner has become the blacksmith’s apprentice – a very nice looking blacksmiths apprentice may I add! The commodore wants to marry Elizabeth but it is clear that it’s not what she wants. Elizabeth longs for excitement.

In this part of the film we are introduced to “Captain” Jack Sparrow. His boat has begun to sink as he has approached Port Royal and so he is looking for another. However, Jack’s visit was a bit more chaotic than he had hoped as he ends up saving Elizabeth from drowning but ends up being arrested for being a pirate. Jack goes on the run and hides out in the blacksmith’s, which appears empty, but in fact the blacksmith himself is sleeping but Will then finds him. Will refuses to allow the pirate to escape and so instead fights. Unfortunately for Will the blacksmith wakes up and knocks Jack out as the soldiers arrive and Will is not given the credit he deserves. Jack is very impressed by Will’s fighting skills and tells him he has pirate’s blood in him. Jack then gets imprisoned and is to be hung the next morning.

That night a ship that arrives and disturbs the whole town – The Black Pearl. The crew is searching for something though….the pendant. Elizabeth is captured by two of the pirates and demands to be taken to the captain so that they don’t harm her. On arrival at the ship she meets Captain Barbossa and she is told what is going on and of the curse of the black pearl.

Will immediately sees that Elizabeth has been taken and knows that Jack Sparrow will be able to help. Jack is extremely enthusiastic about helping when he learns Will’s name and the two make a deal and set off in search of the black pearl. This is wear the story starts to unwind and so I’ll leave it there.

~~MY OPINION~~

The true star of this film is Johnny Depp as “Captain” Jack Sparrow. He truly is amazing in this film and stands out as the best actor. I am known to laugh at the most inappropriate points of films and so my friend kindly warned me before the film started that Johnny’s character had the funniest voice and made the strangest gestures. I had myself quite prepared for a terrible accent of some sort but the voice wasn’t a fault at all I honestly didn’t see anything strange about it – maybe I was too focussed on his motions or just him in general lol. The gestures and motions however were another story but it was all just good acting. These slightly camp and drunken gestures were in fact what made the character of Jack Sparrow a very charismatic guy! The eyeliner and plaited beard didn’t do Johnny’s looks much justice though!

Orlando Bloom was also brilliant. He was gorgeous and very convincing in his role of Will Turner. I haven’t seen Orlando in any of his other films as I‘m not a huge fan of LOTR and Black Hawk Down just didn’t appeal but I’d consider watching them now because I thought he was really great, he doesn’t look half bad either! My desktop background is now Orlando as Will Turner compliments of the films official website!!

Kiera Knightley was really good as Elizabeth Swann. This role was very different to that which she played in Bend it like Beckham. In this film she plays a more ladylike character and a damsel in distress rather than the football-playing tomboy that she was in Bend it like Beckham. She was very convincing in her character and the only other thing I can say about her is she is one damn lucky woman!!

The acting in this film was generally excellent. All the characters played their parts brilliantly and were convincing in their roles, which just added to how much I enjoyed the rest of the film. As I have already stated however, the film really did belong to Johnny Depp as he was so hilarious and great in my opinion without him I doubt I would have enjoyed the film half as much.

The special effects in the film are really good. Bearing in mind that Disney distributed the film, I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular but the fighting scenes were really good. The effects with the crew of the black pearl were also excellent but may prove a bit disturbing or scary for extra young viewers. The soundtrack to the film was also very good and I felt it just gave the fighting scenes that bit extra kick!

I really enjoyed this film and it really was everything I had expected it to be. I know some of you may not be hugely convinced by the fact its Disney and based on a theme park ride (I mean it does sound strange) but honestly it really is excellent. Even though the film is rated 12A I think that younger children may find some of the scenes disturbing and scary and so I wouldn’t recommend they see it unless you yourself have watched it and given it your approval. The story was really good and I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait for this film to be released on DVD, as it will be a welcome addition to my collection. If you’re still not convinced you can view the trailer and clips from the film on its website pirates.movies.com as well as download that gorgeous background of Orlando!!

Thanx for reading

Jenni xx