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Review: Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

So, here we are, the fourth and bound not-to-be-final movie in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN saga arrives on cinema screens, four years after the last one. ON STRANGER TIDES is the first Pirates movie not to be directed by Gore Verbinski, he opting to team with Johnny Depp on another project, the animated fare RANGO, a flick released earlier on this year to a really quite good reception. Holding the directing reigns this time is none other than CHICAGO helmer Rob Marshall. Jerry Bruckheimer returns as producer, (after all this is his baby), as too does Depp with his rather excellent pay package and Barbossa himself Geoffrey Rush, riding high on the crest of a wave after his critical and commercial success earlier on this year with THE KING’S SPEECH. Gone are Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, the former replaced with the lovely Penelope Cruz as Angelica, as at last a love interest for the legendary Jack Sparrow. The story this time around is rather quite simply (no really). Captain Jack and the lovely Angelica have teamed up and are off across the high seas in search of the mysterious and fantabulous Fountain of Youth. Unfortunately for them, so is the devilish Blackbeard, played by Lovejoy himself Ian McShane and his crew of zombified pirates. Cue, hi-jinks, comedic swaggers and mischief aplenty.

So, here’s what I liked about the film. It may have taken Johnny Depp a bucket load of cash to return to the role, but the truth is that there is no PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN without him as Captain Jack. He knows it. Disney know it, and unfortunately they rely on him too much because of it (more on that in a second). Depp is his charasmatic best as the main man once again, and carries the whole darned movie. It’s not long into the film before our favourite pirate is back in action, swinging from chandaliers and causing all sorts of mayhem on screen in quite a good little opening couple of sequence. Penelope Cruz is just stunning in her role as the old flame/ forgotten love Angelica and dazzles the screen in every scene that she appears in, and I enjoyed watching her a lot more than I did Keira Knightley in the previous outings. And that’s where my positivity ends.

I have had a full week to mull over my feelings for this movie. I initially left the theatre in London’s Leicester Square feeling quite underwhelmed, hugely disappointed and slightly annoyed that I had not been entertained as much as I would have hoped. My expectations were quite low as I went in as my feelings for the previous two movies were less than positive, and I can say that I can now add this third sequel to that list. I will bring up that point that I made in the previous paragraph at just how much this franchise relies on Mr. Depp’s performance. Take away Jack and you have a very, very below par adventure movie with a few well executed action scenes, stretched out into an overlong movie that I was just bored watching. The opening few scenes, the ones set in London, showed promise, but then I just lost more and more interest as the movie dragged on. The action on screen, as I said, was just not all that – well, action packed, the characters were massively under developed, the 3D just awfully overplayed and eye-straining, and the spectacular finale that we were all expecting to square everything off quite nicely (thus saving the drab that we had to endure up to that point, maybe) just did not come. In fact, it was the total opposite. I struggled with it. It seems that they’ve somehow managed to do what they did with the last two movies once again. They have over-complicated the script, underplayed the action, under-developed the characters, and focussed too much on thinking how much they could do with Depp’s, granted – quite superb leading role as Sparrow. Even then, some of his stuff is massively under-developed – like the former love sub-plot between him and Cruz, the thing with the voodoo doll and even his involvement with the whole Fountain of Youth finale.

It’s all somewhat of a let down. I had hoped that with a new director sand new characters, the franchise would have been given an unofficial reboot and re-boost. Sadly not. I afraid to report that unfortunately this is more of the same as what we had seen in parts two and three. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES is somewhat over long, overblown and indeed underwhelming. The frustrating thing is that it will do very well, and part five will indeed be almost a guarantee, especially after the whispers we hear that the script is already in development.

See it at your own peril, or words to that effect.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: OM STRANGER TIDES is released in cinemas in the UK from18th May, 2011.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Dan Bullock

    May 19, 2011 at 7:02 am

     I just don’t see why they need to take it on again, even for Disney this is a shocking try at a re-boot despite the quite obvious A-List cast and bizarrely, this is where they seemingly fall down.

    They tied it up with a 3rd and along comes another, the (majority) of the movie-going public aren’t as tight-nit as they once were and relaunch after relaunch is dampening the spirits of expectation and more so, testing our patience.

    I figured this would be underwhelming, even if Cruz is a faithful replacement, because it’s just a tired format, unfortunately!

  2. Paul Thomas Heath

    May 20, 2011 at 5:37 am

    I agree will all of what you said… one reason why this exists is money. This will do well this weekend and no doubt, we will see more of Sparrow… This is not the last! Unfortunately.

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