Personally the best scene for me was the first time you see the Pearl entering the harbour at night to attack the town then they flash to Jack's jail cell and you hear the first ripple of cannon fire. Jack runs to his window and looks down and you get the georgeous shot of the Pearl ripping the town to shreds.
As good as Johnny Depp was in the first movie, Geoffrey Rush was brilliant as Barbossa. I found what made him strong was that he was a villian, but a very sympathetic villian.
He didn't want to kill Elizabeth Swan so there was a gallantry to him, and when he explained the aztec curse to her he sounded like a man that was desparate to get rid of it.
And his dying scene when he simply stated "I feel . . . cold" was actually pretty touching.
The first movie had a sense of real fun and light heartedness, it was a movie that didn't take itself seriously, but it had a good underlying story. It was a movie that was meant to be light hearted, but had some really well done dark moments.
Even the villians as much as they were pirates were not terrible people and you could feel some sympathy for them.
Even the last lines by Sparrow were quite cool and should have set up the next movie really well
[
last lines]
Jack Sparrow: Now... bring me that horizon.
[
humming]
Jack Sparrow: "And really bad eggs." Drink up me 'earties. Yo ho.
[
snaps compass shut]
But the second and third movies were terrible because they were over bloated the humer was forced and Jack Sparrow went from having some nobility in him to be a completely unlikable character who was selfish, cowardly and weak. They overcompensated for this by taking Elizabeth from being a smart but clearly feminine heroine to be almost a guy.