Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Blu-ray)

Or… How Johnny Depp helped bring the swagger back to the genre

Tags: Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews

Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on May 31st, 2007


Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl will be referred to as Pirates 1 for the rest of this review for sake of brevity. If you haven’t seen it then I don’t know what to tell you. Honestly, this was one of the biggest films of the last 10 years, nearly everybody has seen it, and the question really comes down to how many times.

Johnny Depp portrays Captain Jack Sparrow, one of the last of the great pirates sailing the seas. The opening of the film finds him without a ship and crew and attempting to stay away from the hangman’s noose. We are introduced to the other two primary characters, Elizabeth Swan as portrayed by Keira Knightly, and Will Turner, portrayed by Orlando Bloom. One, the Governor’s daughter and the other found as a boy adrift at sea and grown to be a blacksmith’s apprentice. Their stories become intertwined and Captain Barbosa, played by Geoffrey Rush, comes in helming The Black Pearl.

While these four characters seem like they could have some depth, it is somehow only the pirates that have any real character. Depp masterfully portrays Sparrow with a mad swagger and delivers lines that may or may not have anything to do with the proceedings, and even when it seems like nonsense, could provide to be the wisest thing said – or not. It is this unpredictability that makes the character so much fun to watch.

The story revolves around Aztec gold, and how it cursed the crew of The Black Pearl. Of course the crew wants to lift the curse, Sparrow wants to get his ship back, Swan wants to protect her father, and Turner is in love with Swan. It’s all fairly decent and tightly written but it goes on entirely too long. This is the shortest of the three films, and it could have easily been split into two separate movies.

Aside from going on too long, there really isn’t a lot wrong with this fun action adventure film. There’s a liberal dose of comedy, some good performances, and just a general sense of … well, whimsy isn’t the right word but comes close. This was made with “large spectacle” in mind and Pirates 1 pulls it off neatly.

There were plenty of extras on the DVD release, and they all make the transfer over. The first disc includes an audio commentary by director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, another commentary track by Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport (Commodore Norrington in the film) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Yet another commentary features screenwriters Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert. Each are worth a listen.

On this first disc is also the Blu-ray exclusive feature (besides high-definition audio and video) in a documentary that can be accessed by BD-J or Blu-ray Disc Java. Viewers are able to select this feature titled Scoundrels at Sea and while the movie plays, icons will pop up and the ability to watch a specific segment or store them all up for later view is given. On the whole, this documentary is about an hour long and somewhat informative. I do take issue with the extremely quick editing style that is used, not focusing on an image or clip more than a few seconds before moving on to the next one. Still, it’s a worthy Blu-ray exclusive. If you don’t want to sit through Pirates 1 in order to select a few (or all) of the bits, one can play them all from the menu.

The second disc includes all of the features from the previous DVD release? You’re not going to buy this Blu-ray edition of the film based on that fact – but had these not been included, it would be a factor in deciding to not buy this. Do I really need to go into them all here? As a matter of fact, I won’t. I will say that all of the material on the second disc is in “standard” definition – an odd choice.

Really, the bottom line is whether or not you want to upgrade your copy of Pirates 1 to Blu-ray. It is a worthy purchase as the picture quality is absolutely astounding. The audio is great, and the exclusive bonus feature is actually quite decent. If you don’t already own this film, it’s most likely because you don’t like it. That’s fine, really. I personally don’t understand that, but to each their own. If you do like the movie and have the set-up, you won’t do wrong by upgrading.

What Works Score
+ Each of the special features from the DVD edition
+ The best of the three Pirates film
+ Decent Blu-ray exclusive
+ Johnny Depp 		9.0
What Doesn't
- Still a bit longer than necessary
- Some of the bonus items aren't that great
Under the Shrink-wrap
A damn fine pirate film and a good adventure. This Blu-ray edition is a wonderful upgrade from the DVD release.
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