Why Pirates of the Caribbean is one of the most underrated films ever

With rumors of an unnecessary reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise on the way, here’s why Curse of the Black Pearl is one of the most underrated films ever.

It’s not often that a theme park ride becomes a success big-budget film franchise, but that was the case with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. 

The franchise, which starred Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann, came out of nowhere to be one of the most entertaining and downright fun films of the last 20 years. In fact, Curse of the Black Pearl could be considered one of the most underrated films of the past 20 years and, potentially, ever.

While you may laugh at this statement (come on, it sounds ridiculous), Curse of the Black Pearl is one of the best examples of the subtle twist in modern cinema.

The first half of the film is a textbook fantasy adventure/period-piece. We have the lovable, morally-grey pirate, the young laborer in love with a woman above his station, the young woman who wishes to be more than the subservient wife that society expects her to be and the British Empire trying to ruin things for all of them.

All of these are common tropes. The first half of this film is just cliche after cliche after cliche.

However, the introduction of the curse changes everything.

Suddenly, this film filled with fantasy cliches turns on its head and becomes a science-fiction/horror film.

We go from “oh no, how are Elizabeth and Will going to marry each other” and “how is Jack going to escape the British” to “how are they going to fight undead pirates?”

It’s a complete shift that happens with a fantastic line, “You best start believing in ghost stories Ms. Turner. You’re in one.”

And don’t get me started on the phenomenal soundtrack, as well as Elizabeth deciding to take control of her own destiny and the type of message that sends about common film tropes and women. 

However, it should be noted that this is where the praises for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise ends.

The sequels were strange, off-putting and delved far too much from the fantasy aspect of the majority of Curse of the Black Pearl in favor of the science-fiction twist, alienating what made the original great.

Pirates of the Caribbean seemed caught between the two genres when it clearly needed to commit to one or the other and sprinkle elements of whichever genre it dropped.

For every interesting tidbit of lore that was revealed, the audience was given something unnecessary in return. For every interesting new character that was added, they were stripped of their agency and story to become part of Sparrow’s story.

Now, there is even talk of rebooting the franchise, which is clearly a terrible idea — and not just because of the issues with content, sustainability or even the Depp allegations.

At World’s End and On Stranger Tides are two of the top five most expensive films ever made — no, really — and both performed extremely poorly at the domestic box office.

In fact, On Stranger Tides, the most expensive film ever made, lost over $100 million domestically and was luckily bailed out by the international box office. Most of these films did well overseas, so this could be a move by Disney in which they are okay with losing money domestically for the potential massive gains worldwide.

The gains for another high-budget film, Solo: A Star Wars Story,  were so poor and reviews so mixed that Disney reportedly put a hold on other Star Wars films (they can refute this and say they’re “rethinking” things; we know what they mean).

So why would Pirates of the Caribbean, a franchise that has proven time and time again to be a big-budget flop, be any different this time around?

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was great. It took a theme-park ride and turned it into a fun and unexpected adventure film that inspired the imagination of both kids and adults alike — something that Disney tries to consistently do with their content.

However, many of the sequels were poor, performed poorly at the domestic box office, and a reboot has the potential to be yet another disaster for Disney.

We’ll always have Curse of the Black Pearl, but it’s time for Disney to let sleeping (sea) dogs lie.