It’s very difficult to define exactly what qualifies as an “adventure” film, but like Potter Stewart I know it when I see it. There’s usually action, but not the same kind as you’d find in an action film, and some romance is also a requirement (but not what you would find in a romance). Very often some fantastical element is as play, but you wouldn’t call most adventure films fantasy. The big unifying feature in my eyes is that an adventure takes place in a world where there’s the possibility of new discovery, of some possibly ancient and/or rare and/or powerful MacGuffin out there just waiting for a brave and dashing hero to get their hands on it before the dastardly villain does. As more and more parts of the world became mapped out, the possibility for adventures decreased to the point where adventure films were something of a lost art in modern cinema. But, like whatever fabulous lost treasure is waiting for the hero at the end of their journey, good adventure stories are still out there, just waiting for someone to blow off the dust and breath some fresh air into them.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl takes familiar archetypes to build a solid base – lovestruck blacksmith’s apprentice William Turner (Orlando Bloom), strong-willed governer’s daughter Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightly), treacherous pirate captain Barbossa (Geoffery Rush) – and injects with one of the greatest character introductions in cinema history a wildcard that pushes the film from being a dubious adaption of a themepark attraction to the first in a blockbuster franchise: Johnny Depp‘s Cpt. Jack Sparrow. Sparrow is an incredibly unconventional interpretation of a swashbuckler – he’s more Bugs Bunny than Errol Flynn – but his off-kilter swagger gives the film its own identity rather than just being a straight-up revival of old pirate stories. The plot, while being surprisingly complicated and difficult to summarise, is tight, the supporting cast solid (and there is a lot of supporting cast, with two pirate crews and various reputable naval officers), every part a quality product when none of it needed to be (just take a look at some of the other various rides in Disneyland that somehow ended up with film scripts attached to them), but most important is that the film is just fun. “Fun” is another one of those hard-to-quantify terms, but it’s pretty easy to know when you’re having it.
sarcasmbeast 