Solid pirate summer fun

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2011)

As a huge POTC fan geek I'm going to be biased, so I'll just say that the other five people I had with me on the first viewing all like it "I enjoyed it" - "it was good" were the comments I got over dinner after, and this was from people who may or may not have seen any of the other POTC movies. Had to do a fast synopsis for a few.
The good: For me, Depp holds his own in deliciously fine form through the film, and it's a relief to have lots of Jack, strong and sardonic in some places, fey in others, and as amusing as ever - with an equally excellent performance by Rush as Barbossa (good energy from both). Penelope Cruz turns in a believable performance as Angelica, and Depp and Cruz are a good fit. There's been some complaints about McShane being a less charismatic Blackbeard - but in the original book he is also portrayed that way - very bad, ruthless, but very intelligent. In the book he isn't some fire-breather of a person. Some pains are taken along the way to make sure the audience is carefully filled in, which I thought was funny as the producers were obviously taking care of all those bemoaning how confused they were during POTC3 - even though POTC 4 is pretty straightforward.
Lots of action and some high-energy fencing and escapes, balanced out with some down time. A lot gets crammed into the allotted time, but it's paced evenly. As rich-looking location and set-wise as any of the other POTCs. Thought the mermaid scene was impressive, spooky, even a nice haunting song that threads through the scene.
The bad: A couple of things could have been built up to than to more than they were, and the zombies while impressive didn't really do that much in particular, for me they made less of an impact that the sea critter men of POTC 2 and 3. But that's also true of the book the movie is based on (where it may be hard to tell you are dealing with a zombie). The subplot romance with the mermaid was a nice nod to mermaid folklore but it was just OK. And there is a bit of jerkiness or jumps in the narrative here and there that I thought were "reaching".
Was better in the second viewing as the new setting(s) and characters were expected and could relax into the film more - probably will see it again before it leaves theaters. The audiences I have been with were laughing and seemed to be enjoying themselves. In any case, think a lot of "professional" critics are ignoring all the good things about this film, like the fact that it's a good to very good film.