When I throw a name out there, what movie character comes to mind?  Harrison Ford….Indiana Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger …The Terminator, Matt Damon…Jason Bourne.  Johnny Depp just joined the automatic categorical character selection with Jack Sparrow.  With the 4^th film of the Pirates of the Caribbean in the 4^th movie called On Stranger Tides.  The title speaks for itself, and then some…

The 4^th film was directed by Rob Marshall (Memoirs of Geisha, Chicago) takes the helm and tries to clear the slate from the 3 previous films with most of the characters who built the last three films, and only left Jack, Gibbs, and Barboza.  What didn’t make sense is the last film, we all saw the race at the end to find the Fountain of Youth but when the 4^th film started, it stuttered.  It was like the whole film didn’t like were the ending of the third was going and picked up in a different spot all together in the 4^th. 

However there are new characters being introduced, such as a long lost flame of Jacks named Angelica played by Penelope Cruz (Nine, Volver) who ends up being the 1^st mate on the boat of Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane (Deadwood, Kung Fu Panda) a notorious Pirate who has voodoo powers and scares Jack and Barboza.  We are introduced to new ship mates, but they were no matched to the old ship mates we hated to love.  See one of the bad things of clearing the slate on the 4^th movie is that the viewer starts comparing it with another. 

What worked in this film, and what always worked is Jack Sparrow.  The best thing about this film is that the film is more focused on Jack than the multiple different scenarios like before.  You see that Jack has feelings and that he is a human with twitter patting flaws, but still witty and has that charm.  Mr. Gibbs played by Kevin McNally (Valkyrie, The Phantom of the Opera) has such chemistry with Jack that it is so much fun to watch them interact on screen. 

What didn’t work for me were two main things in the film.  First is how every event in the film was so perfectly in sequence.  It was so obvious that it got tiring and there was no surprises and felt a lot more like melancholy.  It never made sense how all the sudden you had the Spanish, Barboza, the English, Jack, and Blackbeard all in a rat race for the fountain of youth, and no one shared the same information?  It just didn’t work.  Second were the mermaids.  Now for the most part they were good.  However when the mermaids became like vampires, it was just took ridiculous.

I liked this film, but not enough to mark it as a must see.  It was too long and drawn out and it felt like it lacked a certain spark.  I wish that Blackbeard was mentioned or even was in the previous films.  It would’ve validated that character and made it flow easier to this film.  If you don’t end up at the theatres to see this film, don’t stress, see it when it comes out for rent and in 2D.

Grade: B-

If you liked this film, I recommend:

National Treasure (2004)

Avatar (2009)

Mask of Zorro (1998)