From the moment I heard there was a film being made using a Disney theme park ride as its inspiration, I wondered what kind of film it would be. A fast-paced but tame action movie aimed at the pre-teen set, or a darker, violent look at pirate life, with more mature themes? Well, Pirates of the Caribbean ended up trying to be both, and as a result, it doesn’t quite work. It tells the story of a pirate captain, Jack (Johnny Depp), trying to recover his ship from his mutinous crew, led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). The crew, meanwhile, are attacking towns in search of the last piece of a lost treasure, held unbeknownst to them by a Governor’s daughter (Keira Knightley from Bend It Like Beckham). When they kidnap her, her childhood friend Will (Lord of the Rings’ Orlando Bloom), who may or may not be destined to be a pirate himself, must join forces with Jack to come to her rescue.

As this is a Jerry Bruckheimer film, it has the expected big action sequences, eye-popping special effects, and in-your-face soundtrack. The actors all do a good job, and there is some clever dialogue. Yet it was obvious that the screenwriters (veterans of Shrek and Aladdin) had to dig deep to find enough story for the 2¼ hours running time. But for kids (or the young at heart) who have always dreamed of being a pirate, Pirates of the Caribbean is an entertaining, though quite mindless, popcorn flick