Incoherent Action: The Captain Is Back

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2011)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is everything a Pirates sequel should be, trumping the previous follow-up attempts. The plot is more over the top and muddled than ever with a plethora of pointless characters and incoherent nonstop action sequences, but Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) creates a film that will please fans and revive people's love for the series that was lost because of the previous two flops. Much of the success of the newest installment comes from the axing of Will and Elizabeth from the story finally being true to the real star of the series, Johnny Depp reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow. His previous nemesis Hector Barbosa is back (Academy Award Nominee Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech), along with newcomers Ian McShane (Kung Fu Panda) as Black Beard and Academy Award Winner Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona) as Angelica, a long lost love interest of Jack. The plot is basically about Captain Jack trying his hardest to beat numerous other journeyers to the 'Fountain of Youth' with his deceptive tactics. On the way he has to deal with Black Beard, a reformed Barbosa, the Spanish (even though they only show up a couple times) and an obnoxious love story between a religious man and a Mermaid. The plot doesn't matter much in this Pirates attempt disregarding the development of a storyline completely replacing it with nonstop action. The fast pace is hard to grasp at first, but it never gets out of hand as the rum flows through its veins slowing it down to a comprehensible speed.
On Stranger Tides is the best of the Pirates sequels even though it still fails to come close to The Curse of the Black Pearl. As long as Depp and Rush continue providing entertaining antics with their peculiar relationship the boat will stay afloat for many more installments.. McShane's Black Beard acts as the new and improved Davy Jones succeeding in adding a dark humor to the film. Even so, all that really matters is that it is a blockbuster completely overwhelmed with action commencing with the opening sequence and not taking a breathe until the end.
The most pointless and irritating part of the film is the awkward relationship that forms between a man named Phillip (Sam Claflin) and a mermaid named Syrena (Astrid Bergés-Frisbey). The audience cannot connect to the relationship because Phillip comes off as a creepy nothing character and the only point of the relationship can be attributed to lazy scriptwriting, which becomes a major theme throughout the film. The cleverness is that used to be prevalent in the series is gone causing the predictable to set in.
Leave all high hopes at the door going into this one and you may just be as surprised as I was after seeing this film. Just remember the captain, the action, the rum and that it is nothing more and nothing less than a blockbuster sequel.