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

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003) 3 stars out of 4. Starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport and Jonathan Pryce. Based on Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean amusement park attraction. Story by Ted Elliott & Terry Rosso and Stuart Beatlie and Jay Wolpert. Screenplay by Elliott & Ross. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Rated PG-13. Running time: 134 minutes.

If you keep in mind its source material is an amusement park attraction, than you can enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and go along for the voyage.

Anyone setting their expectations for something more substantial will be disappointed.

Pirates is a light, breezy, tongue-in-cheek romp that offers just enough thrills and chills to keep you engaged. The Disney people don't stoop to committing piracy. You do get your money's worth.

Sword fights, sea battles, ghosts, cursed gold, scurvy knaves, bottles of rum, a treasure island - hmm, sounds like a good title for a book - they're all tossed in to this cinematic stew directed by Gore Verbinski.

The plot is as flimsy as a handkerchief on a skiff. It centers around the attempts by Capt. Barbossa of the ship, Black Pearl, to end a curse placed on himself and his crew by retrieving all the pieces of an Aztec treasure they had stolen years before.

The last piece rests around the lovely neck of Elizabeth Swann, daughter of the governor of Port Royal, who is ignorant of the importance of her medallion.

Barbossa's crew kidnaps Elizabeth. Rushing to her rescue are blacksmith Will Turner, who is in love with Elizabeth, and Capt. Jack Sparrow, the former master of the Black Pearl who was marooned by Barbossa after a mutiny. Sparrow seeks revenge and the return of his ship.

The performances are in pitch with the movie's tone. The industry's newest heartthrob, Orlando Bloom, is honorable, fearless and dashing as Will, while Keira Knightley is nervy, charming, beautiful and tough as Elizabeth. Geoffrey Rush brings the right amount of flamboyance to his Barbossa, while Johnny Depp is quite fey and dandyish as Jack Sparrow. Depp at times sounds like he's working on an imitation of the late Dudley Moore's Arthur, as his Capt. Jack seems sloshed most of the time.

One of the film's highlights is its special effects, especially in the sequences involving the cursed Barbossa and his crew. They are undead, and appear as skeletons in the moonlight.

Visual effects supervisor John Knoll and his staff have done a superb job, especially in the scenes in which crew members walk through moonlight and are instantly transformed. It's seamless and reminiscent of the stop-motion animation work of the legendary. Ray Harryhausen

Pirates of the Caribbean, at more than two hours, is stretched too thin and at times becomes repetitious. It is rather violent, so I'd advise against taking very young or impressionable children. The skeletons alone would give them a start.

Otherwise, Pirates is a fantasy excursion that will bring out the Peter Pan in you.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies. Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom

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