Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was born from Disney's synergy strategy, thus making the production of this movie an automatically questionable venture. After all, who gets hyped up about a movie based on a theme-park ride? Yet, somehow producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and their writers and cast have decided to try something rather -- dare I say it? -- noble. They've taken a bad commercial idea and tried to instill it with some creativity in an attempt to make a decently good pirate adventure movie, populated with funny characters and a sincere yet slightly goofy attitude. For the most part, they've succeeded.

Essentially, Pirates of the Caribbean is based on nothing. It makes some funny references to the charming Disneyland ride, but by no means is the movie an enactment of the elements of the ride. Starting from scratch, it has its own story -- a pretty good one, too -- about cursed pirates who kidnap a woman they think has the key to break the curse, while the woman's unrequited admirer and a nonchalant pirate try to rescue her. What makes the tale entertaining isn't so much the story itself but the manner in which it unfolds -- first you meet the characters, one-by-one, and they engage in some mischief, then the pirates attack, and the whole thing  has this nice, unhurried pace. It allows the audience to get to know the characters, which is as it should be.

Johnny Depp shines brightest among the cast as Captain Jack Sparrow, the aforementioned nonchalant pirate. Depp pulls off a most wondrous acting feat by creating a character we'll remember, have fun with, and hope to see on screen as much as possible. Next to him, Geoffrey Rush is just a pirate who says, "Arrrrr!" Wisely, Verbinski uses Sparrow's adventuring partner, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), as his straight man. Will is a bland pretty-boy, with virtuous thoughts and noble intentions, which means he's boring, but that's perfect. The pairing works well because this time the eccentric one isn't just doing silly or annoying things that spoil the plans of the stuffy one, as would usually be the case. Both men seem to have their own agendas and are fairly competent as protagonists, so their interaction features an interesting dynamic. That the movie becomes weaker when the story forces these two to be apart is pretty revealing.

Fortunately, this weakness isn't noticed until near the end of the movie when the unhurried pace becomes a little too unhurried, and the movie begins to feel its length. I expected the film to be over two hours long -- something tells me that epic adventures, like an Indiana Jones movie, should always be over two hours long -- and it is, but instead of building momentum to its finish, the movie feels like it treads water just before the climax. Part of this feeling occurs because the last act of the movie is spent revisiting locations, so that no new dangers have a chance to pop up. When the climax does occur, a nighttime battle proves hard to follow, and the running gags start to get old. At least there's a fun swordfight to keep things lively.

I think the movie contains enough good stuff overall to keep the faltering last act from ruining it. Mostly, I applaud the filmmakers for tackling Pirates of the Caribbean in a way that shows they were interested in putting together a solid piece of entertainment, not just a string of action sequences connected by a bad plot, with ugly special effects and out-of-place post-modern humor (ok, the "corset" line is kind of an exception). Those fighting skeletons are done well; the ships and sets are nicely designed; the action includes several swordfights and a ship-to-ship cannon battle; and the movie includes Bloom and Keira Knightley for eye-candy as well as Depp and Rush as colorful ne'er-do-well scoundrels.

For an evening of swashbuckling, Pirates of the Caribbean  fills the bill, especially if no one cares whether or not the movie is anything like the theme-park ride. However, just in case, the references are there, intentional or not -- at several points in the movie, Rush barks out commands amid the sounds of chaos, and his voice is so muffled, I couldn't make out what he was saying. During those few moments, I could swear I was on that little Disneyland boat.  

(Released by Walt Disney Pictures and rated "PG-13" for action/adventure violence.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.