Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

When the third movie in a trilogy fails to deliver what we want, the filmmakers can either metaphorically cash in their chips like they should or search for a prize in the bottom of the franchise “cereal box” by making yet another film to save face. It hardly ever works, as a better metaphor would be scraping the bottom of a barrel (in this case, one that had rum in it). The Shrek franchise tried this but did not fully save face. In the case of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, I liked the third film better than “On Stranger Tides”. The filmmakers tried to take a pirate novel that had nothing to do with the franchise and look to it for inspiration. I am not surprised that it failed. The film does have some good moments but the story failed and we only get a handful of returning characters. This is a stand-alone sequel because you can see it without seeing the previous movies and still follow the plot. However, the experience is a little richer if you have seen the trilogy of films preceding the events of this show.

The best thing about the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise is the characters. The third film resolved the story of Will and Elizabeth and killed off Davy Jones. But without other amazing characters such as Marty, Cotton, Pintel & Ragetti, we are left with only our Han Solo character in the form of Jack Sparrow without the support he needs to truly shine. Johnny Depp did just fine as he always does in any movie but much of his character's appeal from the first three films is gone because much of the supporting cast is gone. It was wonderful to see Barbossa and Gibbs in the movie but it was not enough. The film attempted to establish new characters to replace the old ones but they did so through Jack’s eyes and not in the third person manner that we are used to from the first film. We tend to experience much of the start of the film from Jack’s perspective and it did not work. Angelica, Blackbeard, Scrum and Philip therefore feel unfamiliar to us for most of the film. Blackbeard was made out by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to be the most evil villain in the franchise but he ended up being far less so than those pirate villains who came before him. Oscar-nominated actor Geoffrey Rush was amazing in all the films including this one but he is the best antagonist in the franchise. I loved the scene in this film for example where he is eating sliced green apples. Davy Jones as performed by Bill Nighy was a wonderful replacement for Barbossa in “Dead Man’s Chest”. There was nothing wrong with Ian McShane’s acting but Blackbeard just seemed too much like the Barbossa minus the Rush’s flare. There was nothing special about Blackbeard but at least he was a better character than Beckett. The replacement characters for Will and Elizabeth, Phillip and Syrena, were not as fully developed as they should have been. It was great that Johnny Depp’s inspiration for Jack Sparrow, Keith Richards, made another appearance. He was fun in his one scene but his convenient appearance and sudden disappearance bothered me because it was unrealistic, almost as if the writers were solving a plot hole. I also liked seeing Roger Allam, Richard Griffiths and Judi Dench and it would have been fun if Mick Jagger had said yes to playing a pirate elder.

The story wasn’t great either. First of all, the level of fantasy once again far outweighed the level of verisimilitude. I did like the start such as when Jack meets the King. Once Penelope Cruz appeared, the film started to lose its excitement. First of all, the sword fights were not as exciting to watch as in the first three films. It may have been the editing that was responsible for this. I have trouble saying that because Michael Kahn is one of my favorite editors. As in the third film, the story was hard to fully follow. Cruz’s accent got in the way a lot for me. Once Jack and Barbossa meet up on Ponce de Leon’s ship, the movie picks up a bit in terms of fun. The sequence where they have to steal the chalices from the Spanish is quite enjoyable and it is because we are seeing our favorite characters together on a new adventure. The subplot of Phillip and Syrena was poorly executed. It ruined the film instead of fleshing out the entire story of the movie as it was supposed to. I think this is due to the manner of how we meet these two characters and how their characters are not developed throughout the movie. We meet both of them quite late for important new characters also. Because of all that, the romance didn’t work. I like the little twist of how the Spaniards are not there to use the Fountain. Speaking of it, Captain Teague (Jack’s father) warned that the Fountain tempts people but Jack seemed to have no problem with resisting temptation. His inner dilemma in the third film was evident but in this film, there is no payoff to that warning from Teague. I do like Barbossa story in that he has become a privateer only to get revenge on Blackbeard. His final scene in the film, dressed as he used to be in the preceding films, was a great resolving moment. The relationship between Jack and Angelica was too complicated to be entertaining. Jack tells Gibbs that he does have genuine feelings for her but the final scene between Jack and Angelica did little to confirm this. Also, you can’t have two separate romances in a Pirate movie. The Tia Dalma/Davy Jones subplot by the way was played out such in the third film that it worked fine.

As a little side note, you can tell that Hans Zimmer is now the sole composer as the themes by Klaus Badelt are seldom heard. Dick Cook’s resignation from Disney may have been a small factor that led to this film’s lack of fun but I feel this film did not work from the get-go. As much as I liked “Dead Man’s Chest”, I couldn't bring myself to buy it for years because if I did that then I would have to buy “At World’s End” which was a let down. I may now own the second film but I still can't bring myself to buy the third film. Not only was the fourth film a failure but also I like the third film better because we still have all our favorite characters. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio should do something original because that is what they are best at. Their story for this movie did not work. It seems as though Rossio did not learn that lesson in that he later helped produce a fifth film in the franchise. There is only one reason why "On Stranger Tides" is rated 2.5 stars by me and not lower: He’s Captain Jack Sparrow.

2.5 Stars out of 5