Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie 
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital CopyDisney / Buena Vista | 2003 | 143 min | Rated PG-13 | Jan 02, 2022
Movie rating
|
| 8.1 | / 10 |
Blu-ray rating
| Users |  | 2.0 |
| Reviewer |  | 3.0 |
| Overall |  | 2.6 |
Overview click to collapse contents
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K (2003)
When the Governor's daughter Elizabeth is kidnapped by a band of pirates, love-lorn Will Turner goes to her rescue. However, he needs help to get on board the pirates' ship, The Black Pearl, so he enlists Captain Jack Sparrow. But they are up against more than just sword-swinging pirates; the crew of the Black Pearl are cursed to spend their time between the living and the dead and only the blood of Elizabeth can break the curse.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack DavenportDirector: Gore Verbinski
| Adventure | Uncertain |
| Action | Uncertain |
| Fantasy | Uncertain |
| Period | Uncertain |
Specifications click to expand contents
Video
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English: LPCM 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing
Playback
Region free
Review click to expand contents
Rating summary
| Movie |  | 4.5 |
| Video |  | 5.0 |
| Audio | | 3.0 |
| Extras | | 3.0 |
| Overall | | 3.0 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 30, 2021Disney has released the franchise starting swashbuckling adventure film 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio. The bundled Blu-ray is identical to disc one from the 2008 trilogy set; disc two with its additional features is not included.
'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' is a rousing adventure film set during the height of piracy and the British Empire. As the story begins, we meet a young Elizabeth Swann who comes into possession of a golden coin, salvaged from the wreckage of a ship that also produces a young Will Turner, and an attraction between the two is palpable. As the film skips ahead several years, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), daughter of a British aristocrat, is being nudged to marry a man she doesn't truly love, a young Captain (soon to be Commodore) by the name of James Norrington (Jack Davenport). She still has her eye on the dashing young blacksmith, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), however, and the feeling is a mutual one. When the scruff and infamous Pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) "lands" at Port Royal, he rescues Elizabeth from drowning but is sentenced to hang nevertheless for his crimes as a Pirate after he is captured during a daring escape attempt and a confrontation with Turner. Before his execution can be carried out, a Pirate ship, the Black Pearl, lays siege to the Port town in search of Elizabeth's golden coin, a coin that, as legend has it, will lift a particularly nasty curse that has been placed on the Pearl's crew. Elizabeth is kidnapped, and Sparrow and Turner team up to rescue her by seizing the HMS Interceptor and assembling a makeshift crew. Meanwhile, Norrington pursues both the Interceptor and the Pearl, but only Turner's love for Swann and Sparrow's cunning as a Pirate will stand a chance against the Pearl, her crew, and her wicked Captain, Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush).
For a full film review, please click here.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.
Disney, what happened? The studio's 4K UHD release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl shows all the telltale signs of
gross processing and looks like it should have been released a decade or more ago. The picture's grain has been reduced to a meshy, artificial
appearance, looking frozen and flat and certainly less than genuine and flattering. Edge enhancement is in evidence. Textures have been scrubbed down
and sharpened back up. Details appear waxy and lacking complexity. It's not that there is no detail, it's that it's been manipulated, rendered less than
ideally lifelike or at least filmic, robbing the picture of its grand visual complexity and natural filmic beauty.
The HDR color grading does little to make the image pop, either. The grading renders the image darker and some colors deeper such as Sparrow's red
bandana or the red British military uniform and flag colors, but there's not a lot of pop or depth. Black levels are middling, flesh tones are pasty, and
whites lack brilliance. This is just a real clunker of a UHD image and one of the least impressive the format has seen.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Disney's Dolby Atmos soundtrack is wanting at reference level. The track lacks fullness and aggression when played back at calibrated reference norms. It's basically the same song and dance from most Disney releases, where there's just not a lot of verve or vigor at work. The subwoofer is not muted, but neither does the track exhibit the kind of commanding low-end depth the material demands (such as when the Pearl shells Port Royal in chapter four). The overhead channels are used sparingly, at least in terms of offering discrete effects. A few bursts do manage to reach up above for obvious engagement, but light complimentary duty is about all that's here. The net improvements to spatial engagement over the old LPCM 5.1 track are negated by the lackluster dynamics and depth. Dialogue does present clearly from the center and musical engagement is appropriately wide and immersive with positive definition to all instrumental elements.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
For the previous Blu-ray release, Disney split the supplemental content between two Blu-ray discs. Unfortunately, the studio has only included disc
one
from that set. With no supplements on the UHD disc, buyers are going to have to hang on to the legacy release, or at least disc two from it, to have
access to the full extras suite. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.
Blu-ray:
- Audio Commentary: Director Gore Verbinski and Actor Johnny Depp.
- Audio Commentary: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Actors Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport.
- Audio Commentary: Screenwriters Stuart Beattie, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and Jay Wolpert.
- Scoundrels of the Sea
- About Scoundrels of the Sea
- Movie Showcase
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
What a shame. A genuinely fun movie, a true spectacle, and alive with bountiful colors and teeming with opportunity for rich textural 4K delights has been reduced to an artificially sharpened, edge enhanced, crummy looking clunker of a UHD. The audio really isn't anything special, either. It also includes only a portion of the supplements from the old Blu-ray, which honestly looks better than this. Save some money and stick with the original Blu-ray.
