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The film begins with a flash back of dreaming of Eliza Swann (Keira Knightley) in rescuing Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) in accompanying her Viceroy father (Jonathan Pryce) in an official naval voyage 8 years ago. The flash back leaves a mystery behind the medallion Will wears on his rescue and becomes the backbone of the narrative which gradually moves from restricted at the inception to unrestricted at the closing of the film. Immediately following this sequence, the director cuts back to the present which formulates the main plot depicting the promotion of Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) and the proposed engagement between Norrington and Eliza. Two subplots of the arrival of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and the Black Pearl gradually merge with the main plot and take over it as the trunk of the narrative development.

The film is slow paced in its first half, bestowing the viewer ample time to assimilate the story. This is in perfect alignment with the director's establishing 3 parallel lines of suspension to arouse the meditation of the viewer: (1) the identity of Will; (2) the identity and personality of Captain Sparrow; and (3) the identity of the devil Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) as well as his crew onboard the Black Pearl. Nevertheless, the first line of suspension is not the main trick the director places because the viewers are given hints on the pirate-relatedness of Will in the flash back sequence. Yet the focal lines of suspension are the latter two. To add vitality to the focal suspension of the identity of Captain Sparrow, the director deliberately precipitates elements in the narrative to mislead the viewer with an aim to create an ultimate surprise (not disclosed here, left for viewers to find out in the disc).

By splitting the trunk narrative into 2 parallel plots of run and catch under cross-editing, the director accentuates the pace in the second half of the film which exhibits a triangulation of spatial relations and swapping of positions in both narrative and visuals. At first, with Eliza as a hostage, the Black Pearl (by Captain Barbossa) escapes and the H.M.S Interceptor (by Captain Sparrow) chases. Complexity is added with another vessel, the H.M.S Dauntless (by Commodore Norrington), in turn chasing the Interceptor. Later it comes a reciprocal chase, with Eliza rescued onboard by Commodore Norrington from Captain Barbossa's gang, the chaser (the Dauntless) runs and the runner (the Black Pearl) chases.

As Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp is cast to type. The character of Jack suspends along a spectrum of personalities and swings between that of a good guy and a bad guy, further lingering the anticipation of the viewer. However, monotony in the costume of Jack, with the exception of his hat-on and hat-off, is an obvious visual shortcoming.

The film comes with sophisticated mise-en-scenes in a blue-toned lighting (similar to another movie cast by Johnny Depp, The Sleepy Hollow (Dir: Tim Burton). The director fuses sporadic senses of humour with a few elements of film-noir to create some visual terrors by making under CG the various fighting sequences of the skeleton creatures as well as scenes of eye-ball chasing and struggling of amputated skeleton-hand. To highlight the pirates' mastery of the sea and the navy's destiny in order enforcement, the director uses a lot of low angle crane shots in framing the few key protagonists. Narrative-wide, he also builds up a vocal motif in distinguishing the pirates' code from the regulation, purporting to erect a thematic element in the story. This film is another mix of genres embracing substances of pirates, supernatural elements, love (although superficially covered) and martial arts of swordfights.

The film also carries the ordinary element of repetition in narrative: that of Captain Barbossa and Captain Sparrow twice in the treasure cave and the blood ceremony. Although with repetition, variations in staging, swordfights in particular, suffice to deliver visual entertainment to the viewers. At a macro level, the director establishes a symmetry in narrative that the disequilibrium sets in when Eliza falls into the sea from a cliff whereas the restoration to equilibrium is settled when Captain Sparrow jumps into the sea from the same cliff, leading to a closed ending concluding the satisfaction of all parties: Captain Sparrow resuming his master ship of the Black Pearl, Captain Barbossa's gang salvaging themselves from the curse (except for his own death), Eliza and Will's being together, and most importantly, the viewers' desired happy ending after a 144 minute screen time of oscillation in the narrative and visuals.

Distributor: Intercontinental Video Ltd.
Duration: 147 mins.
Price: HK$ 49 (at Hit Music Video Shop)

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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