the fourth time no charm

Rating: 5/10 (27 June 2011)

The main character is there, a couple of his old buddies and even the monkey, "hate the monkey", are there, but the charm, the wit, the tongue-in-cheek jokes and playfulness of the previous three movies are all gone. If the rum was gone by the end of the third movie, this installment is a hangover. I love all three previous movies, and I recommend all PoC fans to watch extra features on the DVD, there are interviews with the director and artists and actors, one really gets to know and appreciate how much talent went into making the series. Not the fourth movie, though.
The charm is gone. Everything is gone. I got bored after the first 5 minutes and remained bored until the end. There is no logic in haphazard fights, there is no rhythm, no humor. "Between your sister and the dog I choose the dog" - this passes for a joke here, the better one at that. The movie alternates between fake sentimentality and vulgarity, even Hans Zimmer's music seems too loud and pretentious. It's almost as if he tries to hang on to the main pirate theme too much because there is no development there, no breathing space for music because the plot goes nowhere. If only Rob Marshall had at least a sliver of the creative talent of Gore Verbinski. The material is fantastic, there is Blackbeard, the Spanish, the mermaids - and yet nothing works. What a shame. We watched it in 2D, and it became obvious that some of the scenes were made to look go-o-geous in 3D. They probably did for those watching this disaster in 3D, but a few 3D tricks cannot make a movie.
There is a handful of scenes which reminded us of what this movies could have been in more capable hands. Keith Richards has a few lines in the beginning, his acting career seems to be picking up :), the scene with the king is funny, and the last few minutes of the movie (with the monkey in the bottle) have the tempo and the feel of the real Pirates of the Caribbean. I mean the first three. This one is a fake.