Banana Scoop

I finally got around to watching this latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.  There’s a number of different things about this last one.  1) The dropping of the series main couple, Will and Elizabeth Turner, 2) The shift away from the Davy Jones plot for the fountain of youth story, and 3) A slew of new characters.  For better or for worse?  Does this movie recapture the magic from the first one?  Unfortunately, as Captain Jack Sparrow’s legacy battling zombies, Spaniards, and Blackbeard grows, his mannerisms, sword fights, and dramatic escapes have stayed relatively the same.  So just because some new faces were slapped on, Pirates round 4 doesn’t offer anything substantially new, it does however provide itself as a fairly decent action flick involving one of the most iconic characters in movie history.

When Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) hears tales about himself recruiting new members for a crew and a ship in London, he heads in that direction to investigate a potential impostor.  When he finds out the impostor is an old flame (Penelope Cruz), he somehow gets kidnapped upon the ship of the infamous pirate on the seven seas, Blackbeard (Ian McShane).  Blackbeard is using Sparrow to beat both the English, led by the pirate turned sailor Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), and the Spanish to the Fountain of Youth.  Also, irrelevant to the plot, there is a girl mermaid and a male priest…and they fall in love.

We're no Will + Elizabeth Turner, but we're much quieter and and less relevant.

Johnny Depp returns to true Jack Sparrow form as he quirks and smooth talks his way throughout the entire movie.  While most of the time, this is welcome because of Sparrow’s delightful characterization, after four movies the bit has gotten a little old.  As for Sparrow’s supporting players, the only return of importance lies in Captain Barbossa who’s only change is that he has obtained a peg leg since the last movie.  While he’s a welcome return, most of the fear and respect I had for him in the first movie has died away.  So you’d imagine the fear and respect must be transported to the film’s new villain, Blackbeard.  Unfortunately, Blackbeard is nowhere near as fearsome as Barbossa once was because of the relative indifference he makes in the movie.  Barbossa was feared for his caniving ethics and for the dangers he put beloved characters like Jack, Will, and Elizabeth.  On Stranger Tides doesn’t do a good enough job creating character we care about like Penelope Cruz’s Angelica, the priest, or the mermaid, so when Blackbeard threatens and tortures them, we couldn’t care less.

I got Oscar nominated once for bringing a unique character to life...Now I'm just getting paychecks.

The same ideas of retired plots can be said about the movie’s story.  While the story is classic ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, containing myth, superstition, and theatrics, all the magic and horror since the first has died out.  As a matter of fact, I went into this movie thinking about what absurd mythologies they’re going to circle around the Fountain of Youth.  And it turned out, I got zombies, mermaids, and sword-controlled ships.  Another aspect that has lost its spark is the action.  Action over substance highly applies to this movie as there is a random sword fight or daring escape literally every other 10 minutes.  As impressive as these mindless sword fights and action sequences are, they ultimately fall to similar sword fights we’ve seen in the past [battling on bannisters again?  Sheesh].  And unlike Curse of the Black Pearl, there is no satisfying sequence to conclude the movie.  I was hoping for a fight as charged and emotional as Sparrow’s final fight with Barbossa in Curse of the Black Pearl where formal first mate fights former captain, but On Stranger Tides ends rather abruptly with no sense of closure or satisfaction.

Majority of this review was comparing this movie to the previous ones [really the first one], mainly because the first one was just so great, and it’s an excellent standard to hold any sequel to.  Unfortunately, a new director, new characters, and a new story couldn’t bring back the originality, shock value, and emotion of the first.  But we’ll be seeing Captain Jack Sparrow soon again, and hopefully next time, he won’t disappoint.

2/5 Stars

Pretty faces don't save movies.