Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides Review

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides

C

A review by Frederick Cholowski

    Well after the disappointment that was the 3^rd Pirates film we return for a fourth time to the Disney amusement park ride. This time we have a new director a new supporting cast and a new treasure to go find. Unfortunately this time around the series falls flat on its face. Unimaginative, predictable and boring Pirates 4 is the perfect example of a film that is there just to take your money.

 

    Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns as the title character this time he is going after the fountain of youth. Jack reunites with his old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz) whose father Blackbeard (Ian McShane) is after the fountain as well. Oh but it doesn't end there. The British want to get to the fountain too. The British fleet is manned by former pirate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and assisted by Jack's former right hand man Gibbs (Kevin McNally). Oh and did I fail to mention the Spanish are after the fountain too… because they are.

 

    The plot is a clumsy attempt at an average adventure story. It never gets off of the runway, correction it never gets close to off the runway. At the beginning of the film it moves to fast with no chance for you to connect with anyone. After the first 30 minutes it starts to drag, and I mean really drag. By the end I was bored out of my mind. The expedition is not interesting, there is nothing interesting for the characters to say and it goes on and on and on and on.

 

    Johnny Depp manages to carry this film for about 10 minutes and then you get bored of him. The writers have given him nothing super interesting to say and he ends up repeating the same kind of speech many times. Penelope Cruz is even more plastic than Kiera Nightly (who surprisingly is sorely missed) in her role and Ian McShane is an uninteresting villain.

 

    The action scenes are alright. The opening scene is cool but all the scenes after it are predictable and uninteresting. One of the things I can now appreciate about the director of the original Pirates trilogy Gore Virbinsky is the way he did action scenes. He made them suspenseful and interesting. The action scenes in this film while flashy are drab. They feel too much like an uninspired video game than a convincing movie set piece.

 

    Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides fails to compel on basic levels. The dialog is basic, the characters uninteresting, and the plot unsatisfying. Throw in the film being way to long for what it tries to accomplish and you have another summer sequel that's not worth your time or money.