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

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

7/10

Starring

Johnny Depp

Geoffrey Rush

Orlando Bloom

Keira Knightley

Directed by Gore Verbinski

Before the overexposure of Johnny Depp and the excessive sequels in this franchise, there was the first movie that started it all—Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Writing this review years after seeing all five movies in the franchise is cool because I’ve now seen the best and the worst that Captain Jack Sparrow has to offer. From my perspective, this first movie was the best the franchise had to offer.

In this movie, a star was born: Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). He’s a quirky, slow-talking, anti-hero pirate with a sharp mind. Jack captains a ship named The Black Pearl, known as the fastest ship on the sea.
Falling in love with Jack was easy, and rooting for him to triumph at every turn is what kept fans coming back for more.
The story begins with Jack marooned on an island, waiting for an opportunity to escape. He eventually does so by means best known to him—and to you, if you’ve seen the movie.
After escaping, he steals a ship from the British Navy to chase down his former crew. Why?
Well, it was his crew who left him on the island after his second-in-command, now Captain Barbossa, staged a mutiny. Jack was given a gun with a single bullet to kill himself, but instead, he’s saving it to use on Barbossa.

On the other side of civilization, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) is a young woman who has caught the eye of a blacksmith named Will Turner (Orlando Bloom). She saved Will from the sea when they were younger. One night, the crew of The Black Pearl attacks the town Elizabeth lives in, searching for a coin/medallion that Elizabeth took from Will when she rescued him as a child.
The crew kidnaps Elizabeth, believing she is the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner, Will’s father.
Overhearing the crew’s conversations, Elizabeth figures out why she was taken and lies to save herself, claiming her name is Elizabeth Turner.
The ship sails off with her, and when night falls, she witnesses something horrifying: the men of The Black Pearl are cursed, transforming into skeletal creatures under the moonlight.

Disney decided to turn their theme park ride into a movie, and initially, they weren’t thrilled with the high production costs. However, after the release of the first movie, the critical and commercial success gave birth to the rest of the franchise. Unfortunately, each sequel saw a steady decline in reception from critics.