Gone are the curses, dead men’s chests, or world endings, so Captain Jack Sparrow, reprised by Johnny Depp, continues to seek out the location of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Sadly, trying to rescue his old friend Gibbs (Kevin McNally) has him fighting with the English crown now being worn by a privateer named Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). This looks like the Spanish are fighting to find the fountain first, and what’s worse, someone pretending to be Jack Sparrow is hiring their own crew to find the fountain. When an old girlfriend (the beautiful Penélope Cruz) ends up being in the hunt, it doesn’t take long for Captain Sparrow to become unconscious and imprisoned on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by the pirate that every pirate is afraid of, Blackbeard (Ian McShane).
With the amount of money that this franchise has made, a fourth film was predictable. Kevin A.Ranson said in his review, “As another chance to visit our favorite characters again and see what they’ve been up to (other than the happy ending of the original three), On Stranger Tides bursts at the seams with plot, almost to the point of collapsing in on its own weight. Ian McShane’s Blackbeard is, sadly, wasted (as is much of that plotline except as a catalyst to put Jack at odds with Cruz’s character), but the remaining focus on Sparrow and Barbossa continues not only the tale of their rivalry but also why (and how well) they ever worked together to begin with.”
Even though fans of this franchise met Sparrow and Barbossa so long after they had their differences, the two look like they could have been anything but enemies. Ranson said, “On Stranger Tides challenges that notion, a grand subplot interrupting a perfectly entertaining masterplot (and this is where the problems come in). Depp and Rush are so in tune with their characters at this point that they could probably take a request from the audience and burst into an impromptu scene, but by the time the film ends, the perfect balance between these pirate rivals is struck at last to something resembling an accord, but time will tell.”
Ranson noted, “An issue with all of the Pirates films has been a missing sense of where they actually are at any time, and this film is the worst by far (are they in Cuba? Florida? Another island? Tell us… show us! The Caribbean isn’t that big).” Introducing the Spanish into the cast gives the series many places it can travel to. Even though the main plot is surpassed by subplot, the production in its entirety looks like it has been designed to both reboot the franchise without Gore Verbinski and giving new oceans to sail. Ranson mentioned, “Many of the new characters are welcome additions, including a zombie seer, a kind-hearted clergyman, truly monstrous mermaids, and the Queen Anne’s Revenge herself (or maybe it’s just Blackbeard’s sword…hmm).” Until the predictable fifth movie, here’s hoping both captains play nice with the winds and every ocean.
This was a very enjoyable film in the franchise. I missed the chance to see this in theaters that I ended up rented it from the library and watching it while I exercise. I personally think that if you have enjoyed every film in the franchise, don’t miss you chance to see this one. You will love it if you enjoyed the other films in the series.
Look out next week when I finish up “Pirates of the Caribbean Month” with the most recent film in the franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment