Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Some of you may have abandoned the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise after walking out of At World’s End going, “So…what just happened?” Wanting to create a nice, little epic trilogy, the series got out of hand by throwing everything at the screen all at once, wanting to wrap up the love story of William Turner and Elizabeth Swann, the vengeance of Davy Jones, and…well, the tales of about other 90,000 pirates, while lovable rogue Captain Jack Sparrow minced his way through the madness doing everything and nothing at the same time. Well, in the new fourth installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, there’s still a lot going on while Jack waffles a thin line between idiot and genius. And yet, somehow, not only does this installment blow Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End completely out of the water, it even succeeds in bringing enough to the table to give the original a run for its money as well.
When we last left Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), he was out at sea in a rowboat looking for the Fountain of Youth. Apparently he went the wrong direction, as in the name of plot contrivance he finds himself in England. During a failed rescue of old crewmate Gibbs (Kevin McNally, who has a sizeable upgrade for his character in this film), he finds out that the Fountain of Youth has become a hot property of late, and everyone seems to want to get their hands on it. Thus the race begins: the Spanish want to find it, the English want to have it for themselves, and Blackbeard (Ian McShane) wants it because…well, he just wants it. Jack, in the meantime, bounces between the three groups like a Superball, trying to weasel himself a nice hefty treasure while not getting killed in the process and simultaneously dodging the wrath of pirate-turned-English-privateer Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and old flame Angelica (Penélope Cruz).
Catch all that? Well, on paper, the plot sounds like a muddled mess similar to the way the original trilogy devolved. But, in execution, all of these plots flow neatly from one to the other, following only the action necessary to keep the story going. Amazingly, it does this all while still introducing new side characters that have time to develop actual personalities. Granted, none might have the immediately recognizable presences of Pintel & Ragetti (Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook, they of the wobbling wooden eyeball), or Marty (Martin Klebba) blowing himself across the room with a blunderbuss, but they still end up having enough screen time to give audience a reason to care what happens to them at the end of the film.
As for the main cast, well…they all have their fun. Fresh off of his performance in the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech, Geoffrey Rush gives a fine scenery-chewing performance as Barbossa (whose makeup effects look as if he has every disease from scurvy to the plague), while Ian McShane is imposing as Blackbeard. Penélope Cruz and Depp have a chemistry that isn’t quite romance as it is rivalry, and it’s refreshing to see two “romantic” leads that, in the end, really want nothing to do with each other.
Which is one of the reasons I like this installment: in the first trilogy, we had the romance between Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly; although they had their faults and failings, they were, for better or worse, the film’s moral compass. In the world of Pirates of the Caribbean, having that compass is necessary in the midst of all the swordfights, brawling, and backstabbing, but as the series wore on, their role became less important to the larger world, but they were forced into the limelight when it became clear that the more interesting characters were the nasty, treacherous pirates. Here, the burden of morality falls to Philip (Sam Claflin) and Syrena (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), who, basically, are there to be the only decent people in a sea of brigands and thieves. But, at the same time, they are also the flattest, least interesting characters in the whole film. They are important to the plot, to be certain, but they are also given only enough screen time to make their roles necessary. The true focus is on the pirates: the pirates are unpleasant, vicious, nasty liars, all of them in it only for themselves, and damn anyone who gets in their way. Blackbeard is the biggest offender, setting most of his crew out as bait to lure mermaids (who aren’t quite as pleasant as some of the stories you may have heard), but even Jack isn’t immune to throwing anyone to the wind if it means saving his own neck.
What it comes right down to is: if you’ve never really been a fan of the films, or of Johnny Depp’s silly, over-the-top portrayal of Sparrow (or, perhaps, a fan of the 1980s novel the movie is very loosely based upon), you’re not going to be on board for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It has its problems (such as a swordfight at the beginning that exists only to have a swordfight to rival the original film’s), and other than the 3-D, it doesn’t stray too far from the initial formula, but as Pirates of the Caribbean sequels go, we have certainly seen worse. If this is to be the start of a new series of adventures (and the after credits sequence certainly points to it), it would be interesting to see where they decide to take it.
All in all, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is Pirates back to basics: explosions, swashbuckling, magic, and Johnny Depp wandering around alternately scheming or flummoxed. It still tries to be epic, but the epic scale never gets in the way of the characters or pushing the story forward in a coherent way. Essentially, if you are a Pirates fan, you won’t be disappointed.
NOTE: Depending on your tolerance for 3-D, this is one film that has a lot going for it. I have been disappointed at the RealD process as of late (my viewing of 3-D Thor was quite underwhelming), and the 3-D on this was much easier on the eyes in both senses of the phrase. Unfortunately, while deep spaces looked decent, a few novelty moments of “coming atcha!” type things didn’t “pop” the way they should have, but again, that might have been attributable to the RealD setup. The quality of your 3-D may depend on your venue, but even the RealD is not too shabby.
Seth Paul
Latest posts by Seth Paul (see all)
- Box Office Weekend: Eight Figure Box Office for Magnificent Seven - September 26, 2016
- Box Office Weekend: Sully Rides High for Second Week - September 19, 2016
- Box Office Weekend: Sully Lands On Target - September 12, 2016
