Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Why anyone thought the world needed another Pirates movie I don't know. The third film, for all of its other flaws, at least had every major plot point resolved in a mostly satisfying manner. So why, aside from the money incentive, make another? Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides does little to answer that question, but for a film that immediately gives you so many reasons to hate it, it surprisingly gets a lot of things right, like returning the darker themes of the original and taking the time to build atmosphere.

Perhaps I'm alone in this respect, but Jack Sparrow got old for me really quickly. In the first movie he was great because there was subtlety to his method and his true loyalties were a fun mystery to unravel. But with each installment after that he's become more and more of a cartoon character to the point where it got hard to care whose side he was on. On Stranger tides is no exception, and Sparrow's goofy antics stick out against the movie's darker tone like, well, a Disney character in a film about murderous cutthroats. There's not even a need for metaphor.

Thankfully Geoffrey Rush comes back as Barbosa, a character just as interesting as Depp's Sparrow but undiluted by attempts to milk as much humor out of him as possible. The side cast is once again adequate if not memorable. Ian McShane plays a likably villainous Blackbeard and Penelope Cruz adds some charm to the cast as Blackbeard's daughter Angellica. The love/hate relationship between her and Jack Sparrow is, well, just there. It's the same teasing rivalry/romance subplot you've seen shoehorned into countless movies before but it's at least handled adequately enough to be worth seeing one more time. The only throwaways are the missionary and the mermaid, who have an absolutely useless romantic subplot.

What On Stranger Tides does benefit from, however, is limiting its scope to a specific mission and sticking to it. As the last two movies showed, mixing the slapstick antics of Disney fare with the scope of an epic story just doesn't work because the action only gets louder and more muddled rather than convincingly bigger. And while On Stranger Tides avoids the pitfalls of silly looking CG monsters and absurdly complex action set-pieces, but it does repeat the mistake parts 2 and 3 made of piling up too many plot points at the end. That said, there's still a satisfying finish that makes all the buildup worthwhile.

But if there's any one reason to watch this film, it's once again Hans Zimmer's terrific score. This time it's more moody and atmospheric, with less of the gaudy adventure vibe of previous installments, but it still packs the same sense of excitement that you'd expect from a Zimmer score.

On Stranger Tides could have been a smarter, darker counterpoint to the previous films if the mood weren't killed by too much slapstick and cartoon antics. Or it could have been a fun, lighthearted adventure romp if not bogged down with a slow pace and too much dialogue. Either way you're likely to get you money's worth, but good luck fighting the feeling that you could have had much more.

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