I wanted to like it, but....

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2011)

So if you thought Pirates 3 was overwrought and overwritten, bogged down by questions about eternal life and love, then maybe you'll like the new one. I found it underwritten, under-produced, and generally kinda lame. All the characters are underdeveloped. Geoffrey Rush pretty much took the movie, in my opinion, and was a welcome departure from the otherwise dialing-it-in aspect of the others. And yes, I include Johnny Depp in that. Love Penelope Cruz but her character had a huge amount of promise and not much depth. Same for Blackbeard. Actors can only go as far as the script lets them go, and while it needed a lot of tightening and editing that it didn't get, this script was chopped to the bone at every turn. If you're going to include several different intertwining stories, and they do, then you either have to go for the long movie or fail to develop much of anything. I'd far rather have a long movie that actually does something with the characters than a bare-bones plot that merely uses the characters as props.
The thing about Pirates 2 and 3 is that the movies started to take themselves a bit too seriously--but that added depth and atmosphere. Davy Jones really was kind of scary; the East India Trading Company really was pretty evil. There were religious and political overtones that added a bit of gravitas. If you didn't like that, you'll like the new one. If you did, you'll be disappointed. Even the religious references in Pirates 4 never get past the surface; there is no actual grappling by any character with issues of theology or redemption.
Visually, the movie had a strangely cramped effect. The characters spend a lot more time on land than in the other movies and there is very little of the feeling of actually being out on the open seas. The budget for cinematography obviously was a lot less generous than for the first three movies.
But if you just want some sword fights and a few explosions and a little bit of supernatural stuff, plus Johnny Depp having fun revisiting Captain Jack, go for it.