Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

The franchise is back. New director, new story arc, new main character. Yes, most forget, but the first 3 movies were not about Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). He was a “side” character, which, for being the fantastic creation which he was, gained more and more screen time as the movies progressed. Keira and Bloom’s story was completely worn out by the very inferior third film, and perhaps it was for the best that they both declined to participate. But the fourth film has a very particular peculiarity. It is based on a pirate novel called “On Stranger Tides”. Disney’s producers basically bought the novel, filmed it, and devised a way to get Sparrow in it as the main character as much time as possible. So, although marvelous director Rob Marshal has made the most coherent and wholesome movie of the franchise, it is a movie that lacks the swashbuckling extravaganzas of the first two and has a lot less excitement, and a lot less entertainment values. Pirates 4 is structured as a book. Each scene is a set piece (where Marshal brilliantly displays his talents). Each scene has a lot of value and leads the movie into different directions, building up characters. Each scene pushes a little the story forward. But as a whole the movie fails to deliver. The buildup is slow. The climax is soft and quickly gone. The ending comes almost unnoticed. Pirates 4 is a book put on screen. It may have Depp at his best, amusing and delightful. It has. It may have pirate ships, explosions and supernatural things. It has. Individually all the little things seem to be there. But as a whole one asks in the end “is that it”? This is a story that works well on the page, because the reader reads it slowly and imagines what is going on. On screen, and although the 3D was fabulous, there are a lot of things flying around but none which come together in the end. Basically, Geoffrey Rush (for the British), Penelope Cruz, for the Spaniards, Black Beard for the hell of it, and Sparrow for himself, all fight against each other to reach the fountain of youth. That’s it. This is the plot. They all sail to it and then there is a show down. For a good show down in terms of everlasting life see “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. For a bad showdown in terms of everlasting life see Pirates 4. As I said, it entertained scene by scene, and Sparrow is yet not boring to watch again and again. But as a whole this had the dynamics of a novel, not of a film. A 3D blockbuster should hold no bars. This is what you get if you use the director of “Memoirs of a Gueisha”. Filmmaking quality, regardless of the story. But quality is not what a pirate movie should have the most. And spicing up the story wouldn’t hurt either.