Were Pirates Really So Much of a Threat That Even a Military Genius Like Julius Caesar Had to Be Sent To Fight Them? Are Pirates just that Better Fighters than Random Barbarian Tribes?

So many ages ago when I was playing Age of Empires, the very first mission of Caesar's campaign was to wipe out a fleet of pirates. I lost a few times and I remember the Defeat screen saying that because Caesar used his own private fundings for the military expedition, he is pardoned and won't face imprisonment, loss of military and political leadership, and nmnost importantly a lawsuit from the Roman government for loss of warships..... But it sstated something the Republic will take over in battling the pirates since Cesar's defeat alerted the Senate just how big of an issue the pirate attacks are. When I won the campaign, it emphasizes just how big a boost it is to Caesar's career that he managed to wipe out the entire pirate coalition.

In addition I finally watched the entire Once Upon a Time In China series for the first time in completeness rather than just stopping at the 3rd movie the last few times I seen the film over the past decades. The 4th movie had Jet Li on the mission to capture the pirates and he doesn't simply use the police but gets an entire militia and round up 50 volunteers so they can capture one of the heads through abn unexpected ship counterattack. He then uses the captured pirate leader to gather intel and attack the pirate base with an elite cadre of volunteers and then continues holding the elader hostage awaiting for the rest of the pirate fleet to attack the enarest town in retaliation for ransacking their unprotected base and in expectation they will try to free their leader by attacking the local prison. He has the complete militia force of over 200 to fortify the town and a big battle takes plae as over 400 pirates besiege the town.......

So this makes me wonder........ Were pirates so huge a deal that not only do local militaries like Jet Li's character in Once Upon A Time in China have to mobilize a military force to defend against them but even a brilliant military mind like JUlius Caesar have to be sent in sometimes to battle them?

Oh I almost forgot, Ben HUr even has a battle between Greek pirates and the Roman Navy that ended with not just the ROman deeat but the Admiral's ship being destroyed and it kicks off the whole reason why Massala was even able to become a charioteer. Because he saved the admiral from drowning, the Roman militaryman takes him in as an adopted son and gives him funding to become one of the best chariot rider throughout the whole empire.

Is this actual realistic? That actual professional navy could lose to a bunch of ragtailed pirates in an engagement?

For a long time I couldn't believe Caesar actually had been sent to fight pirates until I learned recently the event was real. And ditto with the idea of a Roman fleet facing defeat from pirates.......

Just how far fetched is Once Upon A Time in China sending Jet Li to mobilize a militia to defend a community from pirates? Was piracy really the big a danger?

The problem isn't piracy as such, but pirates who become good at it and organise themselves as effectively as the military forces they end up facing.

Piracy in the Mediterranean was a serious issue, it sucks profits from the economy and makes travel dangerous, as indeed Caesar found for himself.

We can immediately discount film, tv, and computer games as comparisons - they're just fantasy and the creators of such media are free to make what they want of piracy. Real piracy is potentially dangerous but the pirates are preying on helpless merchant shipping as they always have done - and still do. They make bold quick attacks knowing they can intimidate ordinary sailors. Or just be dishonest, as Spartacus found when he tried to hire a pirate fleet to take him and his followers to Sicily. As soon as the money was aboard ship they sailed away and left him stranded.

But your post betrays a certain expectation of modern naval experience. Roman ships had no large calibre guns or long range missiles, torpedoes,  etc, just a lot of armed men, and catching a lightly loaded pirate ship[ with a naval craft back then was not so easy. The Romans literally had to catch them unless they assaulted the pirate base because at sea the only means the Romans have to stop them is by ramming, spreading fire, or boarding actions. That's not easy, not even for a 'professional' navy.