Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

rubyknits This movie has it all... a great cast, lots of action, adventure, kick-ass pirates, a hilarious band of thieves, really nasty villains, comedy, romance, and a story about honor. It mixes true historical events with fantasy.China has sent a royal seal and the new name for the korean nation, but the ship is wreaked in a storm and the royal seal is swallowed by a whale. Now the thieves, the pirates, and the mercenaries hired by the royal court are in a race to find the royal seal.I love this movie and didn't want it to end.

Bantam I am an avid Asia-flick fan and have recently been watching more Korean stuff. And this one seemed like a decent history/action flick from the looks of it.There are some things that work in the that one, like the decent action and rather fancy costumes. But that's that, more or less it. The movie suffers from the same trend I've been observing in other more recent Korean movies: they try to be funny, no matter the genre (or the consequences)! I just watched "The Tower" (a disaster movie, more or less) and it had the same problem. Too hard the writers tried to weave in some funny parts, but all it did was diminish the movie.Here we have pretty much the same: It tries to borrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and falls short. So, it's not funny all through the movie, neither it delivers as a history/adventure. The characters are bland, the writing is partly awkward (sometimes even bad), bordering on the naive; same goes for the depiction of the characters. Especially the main protagonist strikes me, even though a charismatic leader and great fighter, as child in some instances. Some scenes: face-palm... And for a children's flick it's simply too brutal. So, neither pirate (fish) nor bandit (meat). It also has a Luke-warm environmental touch (the hunt for a whale vs. the greed of man).As far as the acting goes, it's okay. The sets and SFX are neat. All in all a very mediocre movie not as entertaining as it might have been ("Red Cliff" set a standard a few ears back). But since I know that Korean cinema can deliver much better results, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

dbborroughs When the seal of the newly forming Korea is swallowed by a whale the race is one to find the whale and get the seal back. This sets in motion various factions of pirates, bandits and officials in a mad dash to get the seal and win favor.Great looking film has some great fights, some killer set pieces but not a hell of a lot of logic. Its a weird macho soap opera (with a pirate queen as one of the leads) where everyone ends up screwed over by everyone early on and then brought into conflict later on. Its sound and fury signifying nothing.To be honest I lost interest 40 minutes in and went off to hang my laundry while the Bluray played on without me. WHen I came back I had missed almost nothing and just settled in for the final hour of constant motion.Its not a bad film but it never fully grabbed me. I probably would have liked it more had I seen it in a theater. Worth a look if you're undemanding.

DareDevilKid Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 4.1/5 starsWhat was thought to be a jiggery-pokery "Pirates of the Caribbean" rip-off, actually ended up being terrific entertainment and quite original to boot, and something the glitzy, insipid sequels of the Depp-led Pirate films should have been more like. On the eve of the founding of the Korean Joseon Dynasty, a gray whale swallows the Emperor's Seal of State being brought to Joseon by envoys from China. With a big reward on whoever brings back the royal seal, mountain bandits led by Jang Sa-jung (Nam-gil Kim) go out to sea to hunt down the whale. But he soon clashes with Yeo-wol (Ye-jin Son), a female pirate captain, and unexpected adventure unfolds.The direction by Seok-hoon Lee was fantastic; the cinematography by veteran D.O.P., Young-Ho Kim, was brilliant, and integrated with the story beautifully; the special effects were more than decent considering the budget; the acting was above par; the sight gags and some of the dialogues were downright hilarious; Ji-ah Kim's sets and Yoo-jin Kwon's costumes were breathtaking; and above all, the action scenes were nothing short of spellbinding. One of those movies where everything just falls into place and blends neatly together as a one cohesive unit to provide spectacular entertainment.I'll even go as far as stating that it's quite possibly, among the top five most pulsating, adrenaline-pumping, humor-laden, adventure- riddled, fun-filled, action-bonanza romp I've had in years. This Korean film simply titled, "The Pirates" is the real deal as far as action-adventurers go.