Improves on the third film but is still just a lot of empty noise without enough fun

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2011)

I remember the first film in this theme-park-inspired franchise. I liked it. It was fun, didn't take itself too seriously and was as light and playful as the cowardly and comical Captain Jack. That was nearly a decade ago and a lot has changed since then. For one thing the franchise has to content with the fact that the third film was a terrible dog – plodding, dull, overly-serious and provided big action sequences that for all their cost didn't have a second of fun in them. I ignored On Stranger Tides in the cinema (as I did with the majority of the summer blockbusters this year) because I had no high hopes for it and no reason to spend nearly £20 to see those low expectations fulfilled.
On DVD it hurts less so I tried it here. On the positive side the film is better than the previous one. It seems to have recognised that it isn't some amazing sea-faring epic but just a silly piece of entertainment based on a theme-park ride. As a result it seems a little freer with itself and at times it seemed to suggest that my entertainment was something it had an interest in. Sadly it doesn't do this often enough or well enough to really lift it up to be a film worth seeing. Along with the less serious tone, the film delivers loads of action sequences with lots of special effects – they are large, they lit up the walls in my front room and they provided enough bass to make me happy with my choice of speakers. But that's about it because they are, like the film, dramatically empty. You never really feel peril for the main characters and there is little dramatic reason to care – so, while the effects and sets are expensive, the money is wasted as they do not have the content to make it work.
In terms of the writing, one problem is the transformation of Captain Jack into an indestructible superhero. Where once he seemed to be winging it, now he seems to be in charge; where once he appeared cowardly, now he rushes into danger. OK the words out of his mouth suggest otherwise, but the action doesn't. It makes it harder to like him and, while Depp's performance hasn't changed, the character certainly is a lot less entertaining than he originally was. Speaking of the cast, a few key names are absent but bigger ones are brought in. Cruz was potentially a nice bit of casting as she does have a passionate air about her and seems to be able to ooze sexuality with ease; sadly the film doesn't use her well and, although she looks good, she cannot find that spark – something I would have thought would have been so easy for actors like her and Depp to get. Rush returns and does his thing while McShane takes the role of the main baddie. Again this should have been an open goal but he is too one-note. He is still a good presence in the film but I'll take 30 seconds of his Swearengen over 2 hours of him here any day. Graham gets his exposure and payday and who could blame him – but he is capable of so much more than he does here. Richards shows up for an obvious and unfunny cameo while the rest of the support cast are either stuntmen or famous faces for the sake of it.
The fourth Pirates film is an improvement on the third – but sadly not by anywhere near the margin it needed to be. It mostly avoids being overly serious but yet it still isn't a great deal of fun to watch. The noise and effects mean the time doesn't drag but it is empty spectacle for the majority of the time and good chunks of it could have been cut to the benefit of the film (the priest and mermaid for example). It isn't absolutely awful by any means but it is bland, empty and nothing like the amount of rip-roaring summer fun it should have been. There will be a fifth of course, but event movies make money, but I really hope they can work out that simply spending more and more money on effects or putting more plotting into the film is not what made people enjoy the first one.