Perfect but not a master piece

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2011)

The saga is going on and will never stop. The pirates are eternal and Jack Sparrow's fame is eternal since he discovered the Fountain of Youth. It is not a master piece but it is very well done and highly entertaining.
We expect and we get all the battles, fights, struggles, duels or whatever with the pirates on one side, the English on the other side and the Spaniards on the third side. That coin is definitely magical with its three sides. The interest in these battles is the sites, the costumes and the details. The English king, the German George, the one who brought Handel to England, I guess, is a fat slob and I am amazed they still can find actors to play such roles. They must be highly handicapped in real life.
The treasure chase is original again and this time we have to go up more often than down and the fountain of youth is higher than its source. But this time there are no monsters, monkeys, spiders, hardly one snake, no crocodiles, no sharks or whatever. The only exotic beings are mermaids. They must have mobilized the whole Olympic swim team to take care of the flotilla of mermaids that attack the poor sailors. I must admit the love affair between the Catholic missionary and the mermaid is sentimental enough to be dramatic.
On another hand they always use some family connections which are both false and true, just like all the sworn promises are both truthful and fakes, and the promises are always respected and yet always turned around and broken, not directly, as if it were an accident. Here it is very useful to get rid of a couple of old pirates that will no longer be there next time and that will be a good thing. They deserve to retire or be marooned on some desert island.
So enjoy this long film the way it has to be enjoyed, like a beautiful piece of entertainment and a very well performed and acted piece of cinema.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU