Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

After the last much-maligned Pirates of the Caribbean films, its creators have obviously attempted to make the necessary changes for this one, with a largely new cast, new director, the now seemingly obligatory third dimension alongside attempts at a plot that vaguely makes sense. However, despite everything, this quest for the fountain of youth just makes the series feel old.

Once you strip it down, the plot of the movie is rather simple. The Spanish, the English and pirates in the form of Blackbeard (Ian Mcshane) and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) are all racing towards their goal. Of course, as they attempt to reach their destination, they encounter mermaids and all means of dangers, which look very nice but never threaten or captivate. The story also suffers for the old Pirates problem in that it feels incredibly baggy despite being shorter and more streamlined than the previous films. However, it still features some needless and extremely dull scenes and seems desperately need of a good editor. Likewise, we also see the return of the standard nicely choreographed slapstick fight and chase sequences, yet these now feel tired and outmoded; it is not a good sign when, during the final confrontation, you start suppress rather loud yawning - we've seen this done before and, to be honest, better. This is also true of the franchise’s traditional ace in the hole, Captain Jack Sparrow himself. Johnny Depp’s Keith Richards impression feels old with the amount of times that it has been parodied, with the character feeling like he has run his course as much as the movie’s concept.

For this instalment, Gore Verbinski has handed the helm to Rob Marshall, a director only really remembered for Chicago, with his more recent projects neatly tucked out memory and with this one seemingly soon to join them. The only particularly obvious directorial choice is the use of 3D, which does nothing but make it look darker and obscure the fight scenes so that, at the end of the day, neither this nor the director bring new life to the series. This is something Penelope Cruz does slightly better at, but only just, whilst Ian McShane’s Blackbeard neither has enough depth to be an interesting villain nor seems evil enough, although perhaps this is because he wants to kill the missionary (Sam Claflin), something the audience soon agrees is definitely the right thing to do. The filmmakers made the right decision by getting rid of the series’ original annoying lovebirds and the same would be true now with this film’s unnecessary and extremely irritating subplot where said preacher falls for a mermaid (Astrid Berges-Frisbey).

In the end, though, this is not truly terrible for despite being dull and baggy, it is watchable and is certainly much better than the last Pirates film. That said, the film is definitely not good, it just it is infinitely preferable to some blockbusters such as its immediate predecessor or Transformers 2, but that does not stop it being a tired mess that fails to impress.

See Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at City Screen, York. Check out the cinema's website for times and further details.

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