Swashbuckling fun

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Stars Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley. Rated M.
Reviewer: PTE Simone Heyer

Feisty governor’s daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) stands up to her cursed crew of captors, led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in the swashbuckling and entertaining Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

One word – swashbuckling. You’d expect it and it’s delivered with every pirate harrrr, sword swish, each billow of the huge sails, slap of the wave on the ship and the tinkle of stolen gold.

The pirates of the famed ship Black Pearl are the nastiest bunch on the seas and are on a rampage of fear to reclaim their gold, with a skeleton crew.

The last piece is with the governor’s lovely but feisty daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Knightley), who is not afraid to stand her ground and play the pirates’ game by their rules.

She is captured and instead of the navy coming to save her, blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom) and former Black Pearl captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) steal a ship to find her.

Black Pearl’s crew have an eerie secret – they’re never satisfied and they’re seeing to it that they have the curse removed by any means possible.

Amazing cinematography means Pirates of the Caribbean is best seen on the big screen. It certainly takes your imagination back to the days when pirates ruled the seas and had no problem attacking innocent seaside communities.

Despite being an adventure of epic proportions, Pirates is at times, very amusing.

Johnny Depp is usually too brooding and dark to pull off any decent movies – all of which I’ve managed to avoid except for Chocolat.

The presence of other great actors ensured I didn’t put off going to this movie off, and just as well. Depp plays his character as a bit of a nutty, cunning, crazy pirate with excellence.

Orlando Bloom is one who makes this movie manageable. His performance, and that of Geoffrey Rush (Captain Barbossa), make this movie shine. Bloom is honest, brave and breathtaking, while Rush is humorously evil.

With plenty of swash, Pirates of the Caribbean is the must-see pirate adventure of the year. Remember to sit through a bit of the credits for a taste of the next Pirates movie.

How the movie rates: