Ink Blotting - Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Posted on Tuesday, August 08, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Curse of the Black Pearl

I am reminded of my Math 30 teacher when reading reviews for Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Curse of the Black Pearl. She said "Math 30 is a course 70% of you will do worse at than you did in Math 20. Math 30 is longer, tougher, more difficult to understand and misses all the fun stuff you got to take in Math 20. Not only that but Math 30 is really just a precursor to Math 31 - Calculus, and though you have to take Math 30, you aren't required to take Math 31, though its only the two together that you are going to really understand things."

But why is this the case? For one Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Curse of the Black Pearl is long. At almost 2 and a half hours in length, only the title of the movie is longer. Secondly, though the special effects are nothing short of miraculous and breathtaking, they get repetitive. After rolling about in humorous danger in a sphere made of bones and sinew it wasn't really necessary to see a duel upon an out of control water wheel, barreling down the island-side. Though still enjoyable, breathtaking and interesting there's only so much rolling around you really want to see in a two hour and a half stretch.

Several critics disdain the acting in the film, stating that Ms. Knightly and Mr. Bloom are just going through the motions and that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack has lost his edge. Those critics also lamented the script and the pseudo romance between the leads. But I went back to the reviews many of the critics wrote about the first movie and they lamented the acting then! So either they are even further criticizing the actors in the movie, or they are suffering from a memory seen through rose colored glasses. My counterpart at calgarymovies.com, Son Tran, is of the opinion that the shininess has worn off of Captain Jack Sparrow but I think that this isn't the case. To those reviewers and critics I sternly shake my head at. It is my opinion, after having read so many reviews that they disdain the unoriginal as boring and scoff at the original for having reached too far. Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Curse of the Black Pearl delivers exactly what it promises to, and then winks knowingly and tells you that it's thankfully not over yet, as Pirates 3 looms on the imminent horizon of 2007. It's not perfect. This isn't the perfect movie. But I could think of worse ways to spend my 2.5 hours. Rolling down hills in a sphere made of bones and sinew would definitely be one of them.

I hated my Math 30 teacher, but she was right. So I will give Pirates of the Caribbean the same grade I, myself, got almost 11 years ago. 64%

Kyle Gould is a University of Calgary Graduate in English devoutly trying to make the 25,000 dollar piece of parchment not just a glorified ink blot. Currently it would serve better as a Rorschach test. Feel free to throw some ink his way at wkkgould@hotmail.com.