Movie Debate #146: Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

Easy 9/10. Epic, fun, quotable, and iconic. I've rewatched it tons of times!

[doner24 | 1,196]

6/10 was decently fun, never need to see it again. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Easy 9.

What I'd be curious about is to see people's thoughts on the sequels. I'm of the (seemingly) rare opinion that the first 4 films are all of a pretty similar caliber, even the 4th one which people largely hate for... reasons I've never quite been clear on.

[doner24 | 1,196]

41 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Easy 9.

What I'd be curious about is to see people's thoughts on the sequels. I'm of the (seemingly) rare opinion that the first 4 films are all of a pretty similar caliber, even the 4th one which people largely hate for... reasons I've never quite been clear on.

They got worse and worse as they went along. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Just now, doner24 said:

They got worse and worse as they went along. 

Yeah, that's what most people think, but I've always disagreed. I actually prefer the 2nd and 4th films over the 1st, which THAT I know is an insanely controversial opinion.

5th one kinda blows though, that's the only one of the whole series I'm not a big fan of. At least it has a good villain.

[doner24 | 1,196]

1 hour ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Yeah, that's what most people think, but I've always disagreed. I actually prefer the 2nd and 4th films over the 1st, which THAT I know is an insanely controversial opinion.

5th one kinda blows though, that's the only one of the whole series I'm not a big fan of. At least it has a good villain.

The draw of the first one was the charm and dialogue IMO. The subsequent ones moved more towards heavy action scenes with LARGE EXPLOSIONS as they went on. 

[JamesRobot | 5,805]

They were all alright.  I'm about a 5 on the series and didn't bother with the 4th one.  Funny enough but I'm not big into Depp or pirates.  I'd watch it if my wife decided to put it on.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

32 minutes ago, doner24 said:

The draw of the first one was the charm and dialogue IMO. The subsequent ones moved more towards heavy action scenes with LARGE EXPLOSIONS as they went on. 

Yeah, that's the draw of the whole series is the charm, witty dialogue, and good characters. IMO the whole series has that in spades, it's not like it's exclusive to the first one. It's just that as they go on, the action set pieces also get bigger, and the plot gets more complex. Well-written dialogue and action aren't mutually exclusive. Davy Jones is an amazingly written antagonist and an amazing character, and the 2nd film in general has a pretty intricate web of competing motivations for all of the main characters, which is a large part of why it's my personal favorite of the series. Every character feels like they're there for a reason, have their own individual goals they're trying to accomplish, and those goals directly clash with another character's goals, which makes it almost feel like it's every man for themselves. Very fitting for a pirate-themed movie now that I think about it, actually. And (at least to me) it doesn't feel contrived in any way, everyone's motivations make perfect sense, which makes it very engaging to me.

And... the thing with Jack is that he has this facade of a bumbling idiot, when in actuality he's constantly scheming and planning under the surface, that facade he puts up is just to distract people from that fact. A common complaint I hear with the sequels is that people feel as though as the series progresses, he feels more and more like he actually is just a bumbling, lucky idiot and he looses the scheming side of him, but I've always disagreed with that. I think the facade he puts on just gets gradually more and more convincing, and the scheming side gets more and more subtle. It's honestly pretty obvious and not all that secret that he's a conniving little shithead in the first one, whereas he's not quite as overt about it in the future movies. That's actually why Jack in the 4th film is probably my favorite version of him. He comes across as a complete imbecile at first glance, but that movie almost more than any of the others, he's constantly outsmarting and outscheming everyone. Similar to how he is in the 1st film, but a bit more subtle about it which I personally prefer.

Anyway, yeah it's probably pretty obvious that I love this series (other than the 5th.) I'd personally put it up there with the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, etc in terms of some of the best film series IMO.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

3 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Yeah, that's the draw of the whole series is the charm, witty dialogue, and good characters. IMO the whole series has that in spades, it's not like it's exclusive to the first one. It's just that as they go on, the action set pieces also get bigger, and the plot gets more complex. Well-written dialogue and action aren't mutually exclusive. Davy Jones is an amazingly written antagonist and an amazing character, and the 2nd film in general has a pretty intricate web of competing motivations for all of the main characters, which is a large part of why it's my personal favorite of the series. Every character feels like they're there for a reason, have their own individual goals they're trying to accomplish, and those goals directly clash with another character's goals, which makes it almost feel like it's every man for themselves. Very fitting for a pirate-themed movie now that I think about it, actually. And (at least to me) it doesn't feel contrived in any way, everyone's motivations make perfect sense, which makes it very engaging to me.

And... the thing with Jack is that he has this facade of a bumbling idiot, when in actuality he's constantly scheming and planning under the surface, that facade he puts up is just to distract people from that fact. A common complaint I hear with the sequels is that people feel as though as the series progresses, he feels more and more like he actually is just a bumbling, lucky idiot and he looses the scheming side of him, but I've always disagreed with that. I think the facade he puts on just gets gradually more and more convincing, and the scheming side gets more and more subtle. It's honestly pretty obvious and not all that secret that he's a conniving little shithead in the first one, whereas he's not quite as overt about it in the future movies. That's actually why Jack in the 4th film is probably my favorite version of him. He comes across as a complete imbecile at first glance, but that movie almost more than any of the others, he's constantly outsmarting and outscheming everyone. Similar to how he is in the 1st film, but a bit more subtle about it which I personally prefer.

Anyway, yeah it's probably pretty obvious that I love this series (other than the 5th.) I'd personally put it up there with the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, etc in terms of some of the best film series IMO.

Plus, Hans Zimmer.

Always makes any movie better. Easily up there with the likes of John Williams as one of the best film composers of all time IMO.

[Brickman | 3,992]

On the Reed ranking 6 on a personal level maybe 7.5.

It was a decent movie when it came out and I did enjoy it. I like pirate movies and I liked Johnny Depp’s take, but then it got tiresome in the following movies. The series just got worse as it went on.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

2 hours ago, doner24 said:

They got worse and worse as they went along. 

1 hour ago, JamesRobot said:

didn't bother with the 4th one.

6 minutes ago, Brickman said:

The series just got worse as it went on.

Yeah, over time I've come to accept that I'm one of the only people on the planet who enjoyed almost the entire series, and whose favorite film in the series ISN'T the first one.

...Which is weird seeing as how they all made like a billion dollars, you'd think someone would've actually liked the dam movies to keep seeing them again and again, haha.

[Sumez | 2,965]

Pretty entertaining. 6/10

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

I'm also thinking a 6.

The first one got pretty talked up at release, so I had big expectations.  Something to possibly join the pantheon of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings.

It was not that.

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

Very well done.  Entertaining and colorful to watch.  One of Johnny Depp‘s roles where his Hunter Thompson fixation was a benefit to his performance.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Something to possibly join the pantheon of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings.

It was not that.

I literally mentioned all 3 of those examples when talking about how much I like this franchise, haha.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm also thinking a 6.

The first one got pretty talked up at release, so I had big expectations.  Something to possibly join the pantheon of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings.

It was not that.

While I do agree, I think that a proper comparison to those franchises, being that they were all trilogies, would involve the first three Pirates movies taken together as a whole...

[Link | 2,714]

10 hours ago, ZeldaFreak said:

a pretty intricate web of competing motivations for all of the main characters, which is a large part of why it's my personal favorite of the series. Every character feels like they're there for a reason, have their own individual goals they're trying to accomplish, and those goals directly clash with another character's goals, which makes it almost feel like it's every man for themselves.

Looking forward to your Pirates Werewolf game. 

[Link | 2,714]

I liked it a lot. I'll give it an 8; I want to see it again along with the others. I don't watch enough movies to burn out on Depp's mumbly winking persona yet so I still enjoy it.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

34 minutes ago, Link said:

Looking forward to your Pirates Werewolf game. 

Wow, that's a REALLY good idea actually.

[twiztor | 851]

haven't seen any of these in years. coincidentally just bought a box set a month or two back. Haven't rewatched yet, but i remember enjoying them. from memory, i'd probably give the first film a 7.

the last one i saw (3? 4?) had Jack Sparrow losing his mind, and there being a whole island full of Jack Sparrows? something like that. i didn't really get that part of the film, and it kinda turned me off from revisiting. I fully expect i would like it quite a bit more on a revisit. definitely haven't watched #5.

[TDIRunner | 2,742]

Great movie.  I've rewatched it many times and I still enjoy it.  Definitely the best in the series.  Parts 2 and 3 were also good, but each one gets slightly worse.  I never saw part 4, but part 5 is also good and seems to get the series back on track.  

[TDIRunner | 2,742]

On 1/6/2024 at 11:21 AM, doner24 said:

They got worse and worse as they went along. 

I agree except for part 5 which seemed to turn it around for me.  Not as good as part 1, but better than the others.  

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 minute ago, TDIRunner said:

I agree except for part 5 which seemed to turn it around for me.  Not as good as part 1, but better than the others.  

I've seen people say this, including critics, which is interesting since I felt it was the worst one by far. I'm not sure where that disconnect comes from.

Damn good villain though, loved Salazar.

[RH | 4,910]

I saw the first 3. I enjoyed both but, man, Captain Jack Sparrow gets ooooold after seeing him, and seeing him imitated, ad nauseum as the de facto pirate caricature.

I've not watched the last 2 films, but I have a feeling I wouldn't like them.  I will admit that part of that could be that within the time frame of these five films, my perception of Johnny Depp has gone from "kind of cool" to "ugh, this guy has become a cringey trainwreck".  Pair that with the aforementioned fact that Jack Sparrow gets old as a character and I just think the schtick would have gotten old.

But it's weird, I can still watch the first two films and enjoy them as they were and for what they are.  But the older Depp has gotten, the less tolerance I have for him.  I can give this one a solid 9 and that's honest.  I'd probably give the second and third a 7, maybe.