Back in the early 90’s (and a few sequels since) there was a video game called The Secret of Monkey Island. It was a point and click adventure that combined an entertaining pirate story with a cracking dry sense of humour. I got a strong sense that I was watching the movie version of Monkey Island when I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean and frankly, that is a good thing.

Pirates of the Caribbean (I’ll drop the rest of the title for now) delivers everything that you require from a summer blockbuster. Action, romance, comedy and effects. All these reasons add up to ensure that Pirates offers some of the purest popcorn entertainment on offer this summer season. Only X2 can really challenge the film for thrills and spills.

Central to the films success is the character Captain Jack Sparrow, brought to wondrous life by Johnny Depp. I like Depp, a lot. He may be a ‘pretty boy’, but damn if he can’t act. He can bring a mediocre film to life with his performance and he brings something new and different to each and every role that he plays.

Depp plays Sparrow like a rock star. In interviews he said that he based his performance on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones and it shows. With black eyeliner, beaded hair, slurred speech and overemphasised movements, Sparrow is a masterful creation. Depp inhabits the role, delivering the dialogue perfectly and even when not speaking his movements and expressions are note perfect.

The pick of the rest of the cast is Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa. He is the main villain of the piece, but he is not without sympathy. Yes, he is a blood thirsty pirate, but the curse on him and his crew means that he now only craves the simplest of things. Although, it has to be said that he is willing to do pretty much anything to lift the curse so we shouldn’t offer too much sympathy for him.

Elsewhere is Keira Knightly as Elizabeth, looking hot as hell, it’s a sobering thought to think that she is only 18! Eagle eyed Star Wars fans will recognise her as Padme’s double from The Phantom Menace. She performs well, rising above the standard damsel in distress role. She also shows some nice chemistry with Orlando Bloom.

Ah, Orlando Bloom. It feels like only yesterday I saw him in Fellowship of the Ring and I predicted great things for him. He shows signs here that he has a future as a leading man, he cuts quite a heroic dash as Turner, capably despatching minions whilst dishing out the relevant one liner. He has an air of an old school leading man about him and I feel that there are far greater things ahead for this great young talent.

Jonathan Pryce has a small part and has little time to impress, in-fact I felt a lot of his scenes could have been cut. In particular the later scenes during the battle, they interrupted the action and took me out of the film slightly. Fans of the best sitcom to come out of the UK since Fawlty Towers, The Office, should keep an eye out for Mackenzie Crook. Crook plays the uber-nerd Gareth in The Office, but in Pirates he plays a one eyed pirate and he provides many of the films laughs that Depp doesn’t dish out.

Director Gore Verbinski’s last film was The Ring. Which, whilst flawed did have an excellent feel and atmosphere about it. Verbinski again stamps a wonderful air of atmosphere on this film. Whether it’s foggy open seas, moonlight drenched ports, damp treasure filled caves or almost gothic looking ship interiors Verbinski makes them all come alive.

Verbinski also shows a keen eye for action with many impressive small and large scale battle scenes. Stand outs being the first duel between Jack and Will, when Elizabeth is introduced to the effects of the curse and the final dizzying battle between the Navy and the pirates. Verbinski handles them all well and with more than a smidge of flair.

The curse that the films title refers to is that when in moonlight the pirates are revealed to be horrible decaying, skeletons. The effect is CGI and it is very impressive, mixing CGI with actors as they move in and out of moonlight shards. The full CGI skeletons also interact flawlessly with the various human actors.

The script by ‘Shrek’ writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio is sharp and witty. Obviously Depp gets the choice lines, but the entire film is brimming with smart and funny dialogue. If I was to level any criticism at the film it would be that at 140 minutes long it feels a little lengthy. Some of the exposition scenes whilst obviously required tend to drag on, also the ending feels a little dragged out. I feel that a good 20 minutes could have been lost from the middle and the end without hurting the movie as a whole.