Review for Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

I love the Jack Sparrow character. I really do. I rank his entrance in the original Pirates of the Caribbean to be one of the best I have ever seen. Johnny Depp's performance was just so way out there that it became infectious. HOWEVER… As a singular film, it was wonderful and had a perfect beginning middle and an end. But Mr Bruckheimer saw $ signs and decided to create two sequels both of which failed to capture the magic of the first. HOWEVER… they both made oodles of money and so another sequel was inevitable and with that, we get the cookie cutter rubbish that is On Stranger Tides.

Jack Sparrow has found the map to the Fountain of Youth. No there is no explanation as to how he got this, where or indeed any other backstory. In a sense, this is a good thing as if you have not seen the original three films then you don't feel that you are missing out on any backstory. However, some backstory would have been nice. Jack escapes the British led by Captain Barbossa (phoned in by Geoffrey Rush) and never really explained, but is quickly captured by an old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and her father Blackbeard (Ian McShane). This leads to an adventure through mermaids and high seas to find the Fountain of Youth.

Where do I start? First up, if you did enjoy all three of the previous films you will probably love this. It is more of the same actions set pieces, swashbuckling, Jack getting in and out of scrapes and general action. If you thought they'd done everything in the first one and the second and third were just rehashing the same ideas then you may want to stay away. There is no originality in this film and at over two hours it is shocking how little actually happens.

Performances by Depp and Cruz are fine, but Rush and McShane look like they really don't want to be here and the film misses some of the romantic spark provided by Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley in the originals. I'm also convinced that at some point the Director must have forgotten to hire a lighting crew as I spent a good portion of the film squinting at shadows and trying to figure out what was going on. I get the 'naturalistic' idea that if it was dark then the only light sources would be a torch or a fire or whatever, but it meant that some scenes particularly an important scene between Sparrow and Barbossa are totally lost in the shadows.

The film comes with a blooper reel which is more or less just the cast laughing and though I'm sure what they are laughing at is funny, it doesn't come across on the screen. Also included is two bizarre Lego depictions of the film that would have been funny if I'd recognised the scenes, but I didn't and so were really just a waste of time. I'm sure the Blu-ray will be bulging with extras, but the lack of extras is rather bizarre and even a commentary or a short making of would have made this a lot better.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is not a film I would recommend. The reason is simple. I didn't enjoy it in the slightest. Nothing new was attempted with this film and Depp's performance looks more like a spoof of the other films. The action was fine, but as most of it was in pitch darkness they may as well have not bothered. The film could have been so much better, but sadly, the strange tides this film sails on are not ones of quality.