This is a nautical themed movie about a legendary ship of pirates and one of many adventures that they have. The story centres around one pirate in particular, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, The Libertine) who swaggers around on screen with the air of Keith Richards in a drunken chaotic haze that any good or even terrible pirate would have.
After being caught up in a mutiny Captain Jack makes for shore at Port Royal in order to "borrow" a new ship. It is by chance that he runs into Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightly) and they set sail on an adventurous voyage and into a sea of trouble.
Pirates of the Caribbean has to be taken very much in the context that it was created, it is a fun Disney family movie with comedy interspersed throughout, some obvious, others for the more adult range of audience. However, serious matters do arise along the way, rum is one of those serious matters and there's never a lack of it.
As with all adventure movies there are the good characters, some of whom have already been mentioned and then there's the bad crowd and in Pirates there are a lot of bad eggs, the mutinous crew who stole the Black Pearl from Captain Jack lead by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush, Shakespear In Love).
As with all villainous crews of pirate ships they do what they do best, steal, lie and cheat; but this crew has a secret, a very dark and sinister secret. Warning for those of a nervous disposition and also those with young children, some scenes may not be suitable. Although it is Disney, you could say it is a Dark Disney.
The choreography of the fighting scenes is absolutely outstanding making full use of every sort of weapon available in the ship's arsenal as well as more everyday pirate weaponry. You can't have a pirate film without swashbuckling and flintlocks. Use of the scenes during the fight scenes make for some slapstick action as well as clever stunt direction on behalf of the filmmakers.
As well as being visually stunning the soundtrack really brings atmosphere to the screen making some of the moments come alive and provide the audience with some jumps, thrills and energetic adrenaline infused moments. Be prepared for a little bit of a love story woven throughout the movie, much to the discontent of all piratical seafarers as bringing women on board is bad luck.
Gore Verbinski has undoubtedly directed an absolute classic movie here which has the makings of a long running series of movies and let's face facts, this is so good you could watch it all day long. Talking of which it is a fairly long movie weighing in over two hours but it never drags. If you haven't watched this movie yet then where have you been living for the last few years?