Jack Sparrow, You ROCK!

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2011)

What Rob Marshall did with Pirates series, no one else could have done with such finesse and panache. Dropping out two key protagonists without explanations and instead of picking on famous novels, he opted for rather under-rated Tim Power's On Stranger Tides to fit the characters.
Similarly, what Johnny Depp has been doing in all Pirates movies and what he did in this movie, no one else could have done it with such perfection. That's Johnny Depp(Jack Sparrow) for you.
Most of you must have seen Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, I guess. You're gonna have a feel of Deja Vu in many of the scenes. Following an appropriately pulpy prologue, the film opens on erstwhile Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) as he's marooned in London in search of a ship, and pursued by local authorities who he makes little serious effort to avoid. Hearing that an impostor Sparrow is auditioning pirate recruits at a seaside bar, he seeks out the interloper only to discover his spitfire former lover Angelica (Penelope Cruz), disguised as him After some requisite sword-clashing, Angelica kidnaps Sparrow and ferries him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, lorded over by Angelica's (maybe) father, Captain Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Commanding a crew comprised of equal parts stray pirates and hulking zombies -- why he needs the former when he has the latter is never explained -- Blackbeard enlists Sparrow to help him locate the fountain of youth, which becomes an especially urgent task after a prophecy foretells Blackbeard's imminent death at the hands of a one-legged man.
Meanwhile, Sparrow's rival Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), now conveniently one-legged, has bid farewell to his pirate's life, and seeks the fountain on behalf of the king of England, who is keen to find it before a rival crew sent by the king of Spain can claim it for themselves. As the three parties converge on the fountain's jungle location, they must also deal with a ravenous horde of vampiric mermaids, from whom a single tear must be procured to drink the fountain's waters.
In case any one of you haven't seen the previous movies, frequent recaps are provided through out and it doesn't matter too much anyway. Depp remains the face of the film. But a majority of his thunder is co-opted by an on-point Rush, who not only gets the funniest lines and reaction shots, but also starts to siphon away much of the roguish charm that used to be Depp's stock and trade. McShane, on the other hand, is underwhelming. Never appearing comfortable in his heavy pirate get-up, his tired Blackbeard is only menacing via other characters' testimonials to his evil, and his one on screen atrocity seems tossed in merely to stress that he is, in fact, the bad guy.
Cruz is a reliably welcome, gorgeous presence, though she too often falls back on the "feisty Latina" signifiers that have been the crutch of so much of her English-language work. Sam Claflin supplies some semi- risible gallantry as a super-studly priest, and Astrid Berges-Frisbey looks effectively terrified as a captive mermaid.
All in all, it is must watch for everybody who is a fan of Pirates series and Johnny Depp. Go for it and chances are less of you being disappointed.
Thanks & Regards,
My Rating: 8/10