Movie Review: Pirates Of The Carribbean: On Stranger Tides

The Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise was one of the staple film series of my early teenage years. The first installment in the franchise is still among my favorite films and the two preceding installments are pretty great as well (more so Dead Man's Chest than At World's End.) After a four-year break in the action, Pirates is back and On Stranger Tides is a worthy fourth installment.


This go-round, Jack Sparrow is in pursuit of the Fountain Of Youth. Jack finds out there is an impostor in London claiming to be him and attempting to recruit a crew. Jack soon finds out that the impostor is none other than his ex-lover Angelica (Penelope Cruz), who is also revealed to be the daughter of then notorious pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Jack ends up being forced to join Blackbeard's crew, because he (reportedly) knows the location of the Fountain. But Blackbeard is not the only person in pursuit of the Fountain; a group of British soldiers, led by Jack's old nemesis Barbossa (Geffory Rush), not to mention the entire Spanish Armada, are trying to beat them to the fountain.

On Stranger Tides sticks to the typical Pirates formula, and it's still as fun as ever. The sense of adventure and high-octane action and thrills are still present. The action sequences are not quite on the excessively grand-scale as they were in At World's End, which I think ultimately was a good choice. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed At World's End, but it was overlong and went overboard on some of the action sequences. On Stranger Tides' action scenes are pretty great, especially the sequence where Jack escapes from the custody of the British early in the film

Johnny Depp is still great as Jack Sparrow. Jack is such a great character, and Depp's eccentric wit brings a sense of non-stop fun to the role. It was also great to see Geoffrey Rush back as Barbossa, who is another one of the best characters, and it was a joy to see that he was brought back as well. Ian McShane makes a nice addition as Blackbeard. He was a solid villain and the right choice for the role. On the other end of the spectrum, Penolope Cruz didn't really do much. She wasn't completely horrible, but it seemed like she could have done a lot more with the character. Even though she was one the main characters, her performance made her character seem completely meaningless and inconsequential.

On Stranger Tides is a solid adventure that should please fan of the previous Pirates films. It's very much in the same vein as the other Pirates films, and the sense of fun is still there even though it is on its fourth go-round. It's not as good as the first two, but I would say it's a definitely improvement on At World's End. On Stranger Tides doesn't soil the name of the franchise and I look forward to the next installment.

4/5 Stars