Film #34 of 2023.
Pirates of the Caribbean is a formative film for many in the generation of its release. Who knew you (and Disney??) could make a movie based on an old theme park ride about pirates so. Good.
Curse of the Black Pearl is the original and best of a franchise that is now, unfortunately, dead in the water, but when this film first hit shores it made waves.
Like holy crap, who gave permission for this film to rock the boat so hard? The screenplay drips with quotable lines, the soundtrack is as iconic as that film that came out the same year that actually won the Academy Award (something about kings returning?), the cast is immaculate (from iconic Depp to eccentric Rush to everyone inbetween. Bloom and Knightley?? This is like the 2000s equivalent of The Mummy awakening things in adolescents)
And the action? The set-pieces? My god. Verbinski has the potential to hit Spielberg-level set-piece construction and you still get that now. Absolutely astounding sword fights that just set the bar for the franchise to leap over itself. Brilliant moments tied together with fun beats and constantly rousing music. Places for character to enhance every shot, injecting personality to the blockbuster.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a perfect storm. Sure the sequels had diminishing returns, but at a time, these were pure events. Well worth waiting in line to roll up and see.
The ride at Walt Disney World, not so much. The inventors of parley, the French, seem to get that much better.
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