I am a huge fan of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. However, the last two Pirates were a mixed bag for me. I was not a fan of the convoluted plots and increasingly darker tone, but I enjoyed them for the most part, and was very much looking forward to On Stranger Tides. While most people seemed disappointed in the movie, I felt that it was a decent addition to the series, but that’s not to say I didn’t have real problems with it.
Based on Tim Powers’ novel of the same name, my main problem with the movie is that it makes the strange decision to gloss over the main plot --- the search for the fountain of youth--- to focus on tedious fight scenes, undeveloped relationships, dropped plot threads and one of the most boring “romances” in cinema history.
When both the Spanish and British Empires find proof that The Fountain of Youth has been located, there is a rush to beat each other to the amazing find. Captain Jack, however, has no interest in the search, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) his ex-girlfriend Angelica does. Her father, the dreaded pirate Blackbeard, has been marked for death, and desperate to save him, she lures Jack onboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge to help them find the immortal elixir.
I thought Penelope Cruz was magnificent as Angelica and she and Johnny Depp had a lot of chemistry. Their scenes crackled and you believed that they were once/and maybe still are in love. I also enjoyed Ian McShane as the morally bankrupt Blackbeard.
The movie was bloated, though. They spent a half an hour on an “impersonation plot” that was little more than a way to introduce Angelica in a “cool way”. They could have cut that subplot out entirely and went directly into the search.
The fight scenes were over the top, and at times unnecessary, but that has become par for the course for Pirates movies.
My biggest gripe with the movie is the plot. The Search for The Fountain of Youth is ingrained in our imaginations, and is really a set-up for an amazing, fantastical adventure. But in On Stranger Tides it’s almost an afterthought, and by the time the search reaches its obligatory ending, you realize they could have been looking for treasure, a lost continent, or Jack’s socks and it wouldn’t have mattered. It seems like a waste of a tantalizing topic.
The characterizations were also weak. Jack and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) have a complicated history, but somehow I never felt like I was watching the same guys from the past movies. There was something missing. But Rush was brilliant and hilarious as a pirate trying to act like a gentlemen solider.
With Will and Elizabeth’s storyline wrapped up in that last movie, there are two new love young birds in the mix, which brings us to the weakest link in the movie --- the “romance” between the ship’s kidnapped clergyman (Sam Claflin) and a mermaid (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). I personally didn’t think they needed the young blood. The Angelica/Jack banter filled the romance quota just fine. Maybe it would have worked if the clergyman wasn’t such a boring waste of celluloid. The only amusement I got from him was the guy sitting next to me periodically begging his mermaid girlfriend to eat him! That was funny.
Jack also felt off too, but that really didn’t bother me so much. Even though Captain Jack became the most popular character in the franchise, the movies were really about Will and Elizabeth, and he was their sidekick. This movie reboots the franchise so it’s Captain Jack’s story. It delves more into his background and personality, so we are seeing a new Jack. It’s a bit jarring, and takes some getting use too, but as the new movies progress I’m sure we’ll all come to love this new Jack, as much as we love the old one.
My verdict? If you want to see a fun movie go see On Stranger Tides. If you want to see a good movie rent or download The Curse of the Black Pearl on Netflix.
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