Pirates was pirates…just as you would expect but with an added religious undertone (or was it an overtone?). Johnny Depp returns for the 4th installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, an adventure movie based on the popular amusement ride from Disney. The last movie may have been called “At World’s End” but there is no end in sight for this series as long as people keeping paying to see it…and people love pirates, right? (or is it those dreamy Johnny Depp eyes?). Either way, this installment is titled “On Stranger Tides” and follows suit with the epic adventure series which lets fans revel in the awesomeness of pirates. There’s no Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley, but most of the pirates are back and we’re joined by the titillating Penélope Cruz.
Depp is charming right from the beginning as we follow him around London causing mischief. Apparently there’s an impostor with a ship looking for a crew to embark on a journey. The King of England learns of this and captures Captain Jack Sparrow to go on a mission for him. At the same time, the Spaniards are already a step ahead after learning of the infamous Fountain of Youth. You can already see we’re building up for a big ending battle. But wait, there’s more! Kevin McNally is back as Gibbs, Geoffrey Rush is back as Barbossa and Ian McShane is back as Blackbeard…what could all of them have in common? They’re all heading for the Fountain of Youth of course! Who wrote this movie, Captain Obvious?
Who's worse? Angelica or Blackbeard?
As usual, the ships are magnificent, the pirates are scoundrels and there’s a lot of time at sea with lots and lots of talking. Luckily, there were a lot of clever smirk-worthy lines in the dialogue. What’s different between this movie and the last three movies?…you guessed it, 3D! But actually, the Disney Digital 3D was pretty good. It made the characters pop on screen and you could tell it was made with the proper equipment. There are a few scenes that played to the fact that the movie was shot in 3D (think sword in your face…actually that was about it, a bunch of swords in your face). I took my glasses off at some of the scenes which were really dark but for the most part, I enjoyed the 3D experience for this one.
See, lots of 3D swords in your face
Most of the beginning of the film is character introductions. However, they were all introduced in the same way. Mysterious figure, who could it be? Shot below the face, I wonder who it is? Someone dressed as someone else…but really who dressed themselves? Oh! Right…everybody from the commercials and posters are in the movie…surprise surprise. Either way, it’s fun to cheer on the return of your favorite pirates. There are even some smaller roles from people you might not expect. The middle of the movie is the journey to the Fountain of Youth with the background stories of all the characters you know from the previous films as well as the quick intro to some new characters: mainly a religious missionary, a vampire mermaid and Penélope Cruz as Angelica. Yes, I said vampire mermaid and they’re beautifully vicious. In my opinion, the best part of the movie. I’d like to get su—woah woah, this movie is rated PG-13. Anyway, Jack Sparrow is of the position of the missionary. (see, clever lines
)
Oh hell yes...beware of the vampire mermaid. Beware of them all night long!
As you would’ve guessed…everybody shows up for the big finale at the Fountain of Youth and it pretty much plays out like the ending of all the rest of the films: everybody attacks everybody and our antihero Jack Sparrow is somehow two steps ahead. The love story in the mix is a lot smaller than usual but the religious tones are a lot larger. The Spanish vs English rivalry is pretty much God vs Pagan and the whole living forever idea from the fountain boils down to faith and knowledge of one’s death. Serious stuff for a pirate movie but don’t worry, they just glance over all of that with explosions, sword fights, supernatural zombie-crewed ships, vampire mermaids and a topsy turvey ship scene that I think was just thrown in to have a new Disney ride made out of it. If you’re a fan, you’re going to go see it and you’re going to leave happy. If you’re tired of the series…you’ve probably had enough from this review. Oh, and stick around for after the credits, savvy?
Tags: Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally, Penélope Cruz, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
Pingback: REVIEW: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides … | Pirates of the Caribbean 4 ------- On Stranger Tides