(4 and 5 are dead to me)

I’ll start by condemning pirates and criminals blah blah

The Pirates of the Caribbean has been one of my favourite trilogies since part three came out. The beauty of those men who took up a wooden bowl and discovered the whole world with nothing but the wind and a needle that pointed north. That kind of commitment is unmatched. A job needed to be done and they’d do it. Take orders as they were told. Trust, respect, and loyalty. The story itself is brilliant. A look at the way governments get a hold of and control your life. The persistence sailors had. The grit. No fear even in the face of certain death.

Just the feeling of watching men work hard to get what they want. It’s really something else. A good three film arc where each character learn their place in the world and have their world views challenged. It’s unparalleled in storytelling. Perhaps Lord of the Rings but I digress.

When you look at a good female character you usually have to look back to the 80s and 90s. Ripley, Trinity, V, Sarah Connor, Clarice, Beatrix Kiddo, Eowyn. These are all examples of fantastic female characters. Characters who aren’t female for the sake of being female but are just great characters who happen to be female (as it should be). In modern films this quality has been lost. However, I would award one modern female character a spot on this list, Elizabeth Swan. We actually see her experience the hardships young pirates would have experienced when starting out. We see her overcome her problems. We see her eventually become a successful pirate who can lead them into battle.

I haven’t seen something this well made in a long time. I’d love to see more female characters on the screen, I really would. They bring a great dynamic to the usual males we see and the situations they deal with. However, I don’t wanna see them at the cost of good writing and proper character development. Every time they sell a character based on their physical traits rather than their actual merit and quality, the female character (and minorities as a whole) get hurt even more. When will studios realise this?

So yeah, Pirates films are great.