Entertainment At It's Best

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2011)

First Jack Sparrow and our favorite pirates dealt with a curse from gold that makes you a zombie under the moon(Black Pearl), next they dealt with creatures that looked like a sperm whale's puke(Dead Man's Chest), then our pirates dealt with... A bunch of random things (World's End). Now in Stranger Tides, it's a race for the fountain of youth. With a load of new characters, and not a sight of William Turner or Casey Jones.
The one thing that everyone wants to see in this movie is another enjoyable watching of Jack Sparrow, who captures the fun of being a pirate for us all like a master. Johnny Depp delivers the performance everyone knows and love, with a number of humorous moments given from screen writer Ted Elliot, who wrote the first classic film (Curse Of The Black Pearl).
There are two ways of viewing this movie, you can watch it and enjoy it at it's own terms or compare it with the 3 previous Pirate movies. On the movie's own terms, it's great entertainment with sword fights around every corner, and tactical situations solved in goofy ways. The movie is loaded with improbable moments, such as the idea of an English ruler letting a pirate loose in his palace during a discussion about the Spanish.
In light of the franchise, the film wont compete with Curse Of The Black Pearl, but will sit roughly around the level of quality as Dead Man's Chest. At World's End not only was cheesy, it was incredibly weird and the story didn't really know what it wanted to do. In comparison, On Stranger Tides beats At World's End very much. Stranger Tides actually had a plot that stayed on track and wasn't extremely desperate and confusing.
Dead's Man's Chest was heavy on special effects, especially with big objects. The directer was Throwing what he can that looks action pack. Stranger Tides doesn't fall into that tiresome routine.
I was entertained while watching this movie, and any Pirates Of The Caribbean fan will be as well. A fan will be disappointed if he or she expects this movie to up the level of the first, or for that mater, even be as good as the first. I walked in the theater with the expectations that this was actually going to be worse then At World's End, and it wasn't. So I was pleased and enjoyed myself.