If there was one complaint I had during the previous two Pirates of the Carribean films, it was the annoying fact that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow wound up taking a side-car position, while at the same time being a main character focus. He would show up when something important needed to occur, say something goofy, and then he would disappear until he was needed for a witty line for a sword fight.
In "On Stranger Tides", we are spared the shenanigans of William Turner and his love interest, Posh-Governors-Daughter-Turned-Pirate Queen Elizabeth Swann, as well as the almost too-tedious-to-be-compelling heartbreak story of Davy Jones.
Woefully, we don't get to see Lee Arenberg's Pintel and Mackenzie Crook's Ragetti this time around. We trade them in for a singular member of Blackbeards crew who occasionally says something dim.
This time, Jack is center stage, in a tale of the search for the Fountain of Youth, based on a series of books about a younger Jack Sparrow that I saw floating around grocery stores around the time Dead Mans Chest hit theaters.
Ian McShane plays the role of Necromancer Pirate Lord Blackbeard, having survived his decapitation at the hands of the English, wielding a magic sword that commands his ships sails and makes it shoot fire. All with the annoyed and world weary calm he exhibited in Deadwood as Al Swerengen. Despite it being a Disney film, I wanted Blackbeard to drop a "Cocksucker!" just once. I mean, it's almost the guys bread and butter.
Penelope Cruz plays Blackbeards daughter Angelica. Another woman from Jack's past that he's had encounters with. Obviously intended for a villainess role, I found it hard to care about her. She weaves back and forth from wanting to help Blackbeard reach the fountain of youth, and playing Jack like a fiddle.
Geoffrey Rush is on his game with his protrayal of "Pirvateer" Hector Barbosa, more concerned about his revenge against Blackbeard than his trivial differences with Jack.
However, we're missing something vital to a Pirates film, aren't we? That's right, romance. We still don't have our lovey dovey side story. A fixture in all three of the previous films.
Sure we have the sexual tension between Angelica and Jack, that Jack Sparrow is never the kind to swoon, fawn or say sweet things. That job falls on a cleric played by Sam Claflin and a Mermaid played by Astrid Berges-Frisbey who's been taken captive by Blackbeard so as to obtain a "Mermaids Tear". This side story had some potential to evolve into the next Orlando Bloom/Keira Knightley, if only perhaps we had met the Cleric earlier, encountered the Mermaids sooner, but then, an elongated side story would have taken the sptolight off Jack, and that's the one we want to see.
There is also a third party in play for the Fountain of Youth, a Spanish Galleon commander simply known as The Spaniard, played by Oscar Jaenada. The Spanish only appear a few times, The Spaniard even less, but when he does appear, you can't help but be impressed and hope that perhaps he will cross swords with Jack Sparrow in a future film.
There are a few scenes in this movie that feel like they weren't really necessary other than to have Jack and Blackbeard quip at one another. The Scene at the Broken Bridge and the Russian Flintlock Roulette as an example.
As it stands as a Pirates film, it is in this humble bloggers personal opinion that the film outshines At Worlds End, as the story remains on a set course for the majority of the film, rather than jumping from plot point and side plot point every few minutes, with Johnny Depp standing around looking lost or bored and waiting for Orlando to shut up so he can say his next line. Or waiting to actually appear, as it so happened to be the case in the second and third film.
Rated 7/8 Pieces of Eight-- Go see it and have fun.
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