Pirates Of The Carribean – The Curse Of The Black
Pearl + Dead Man’s Chest (Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: A- Extras: C Films: C-/D
Some
franchises are stronger than others, but for Disney, The Pirates Of The Carribean started as one of the company’s famous
amusement park rides. Though they are
far form the original rides and a certain political correctness has wiped away
the original storyline quite a bit, Jerry Bruckheimer has turned the ride into
what is so far a trilogy of hit films.
Previously hitting DVD-Video, Disney has made the first two films into
major premiere 50GB Blu-ray sets, which we are looking at now.
Even fans
of the franchise had trouble with the sequel, as our resident Disney fan points
out in this review of the DVD of Dead
Man’s Chest:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4773/Pirates+Of+The+Caribbean-+Dead
Though he
has liked the films more than I have, note the drop in how much fans of the
first have for the second. Why? Because getting hit in the head can only be
funny so often. I am also no fan of
director Gore Verbinski. I still have
not recovered from how bad The Mexican
was.
The
reason these films ultimately were this is because there is a market for what
is seen as mindless, jokey fun and that’s fine.
Most important, Disney and Bruckheimer puts the money in these films and
knows how to cast them. There is digital
work, but it is more stylized than usual, but you get more sets. Also, it is been a very long time since
Hollywood did a pirates film of any kind, let alone one that worked. Cutthroat
Island (reviewed elsewhere on this site) bombed, but even developed its own
cult following, proving the desire to see such films.
With
nothing more to say on the films, how do the Blu-rays perform? The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image was shot in Super 35mm by Darius Wolski, A.S.C., in both cases and though
it does this by the slimmest of margins, I have to admit the picture looks very
good on both earning the letter grade they do.
Sure, the digital is dated on arrival, but color, clarity, depth and
even detail have their moments. Some
(critics and fans) will get carried away with how good and “pristine” this
looks, but I’ll give that each have a few demo moments.
The PCM
5.1 48 kHz/24Bit mixes are even more impressive, as expected for films trying
to be amusement park rides. The scores
by Klaus Baldet and Hans Zimmer for the first two films respectively do nothing
for me, but the mix itself helps sell the films above being just competent
corporate A product. Bass, depth and
fullness is good, better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 in both cases here or in
their DVD equivalents. Both PCM mixes
also have their demo moments, yet I was not high on either as reference
material I would consider the very best, but it will have its fans and they at
least deliver the exceptional improvements over DVD the format is supposed to
and does not always manage.
Extras on
these first two films are the same for these Blu-rays as they are for the DVD sets
that were issued of both. Since we
already covered extras for the second, here for the record are the extras for
the first. This includes feature length
audio commentary by Verbinski and Johnny Depp, Bruckheimer, Keira Knightley &
Jack Davenport, Writers Stuart Beattie, Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio and Jay
Wolpert, An Epic At Sea: The Making of
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse
Of The Black Pearl", 19 Deleted and Alternate Scenes, "Moonlight" Scene Progression, "Below Deck" - An Interactive
History Of Pirates, "Fly on the Set"
Featurette, "Diary of a Pirate"
- Behind-the-Scenes look with cast member Lee Arenberg, "Diary of a Ship" Video Journal, "Walt
Disney's Wonderful World of Color" - Archival TV Program, Producer's
Diary Featurette With Jerry Bruckheimer, stills, blooper reel and DVD-ROM
Features: "Moonlight Becomes Ye"
Effects Studio, History of the Ride Featurette, Virtual Reality Viewer, Script scanner
& Storyboard Viewing Modes.
Now you
see why these are double Blu-ray sets.
Disney has put out the best number of titles in the format so far and
have been the most aggressive, for whatever reasons. Whether you like the films or not, Disney did
these well enough that they should help the format out considerably.
- Nicholas Sheffo
