This is ground control to Captain Jack...

Rating: 3/10 (21 May 2011)

I am really unsure of how to sum up On Stranger Tides in simple words. Before I begin this review, let me state 2 things: 1. I absolutely love the first three movies, and 2. To that guy who said "the skinny girl is not in the movie", that skinny girl is named Kiera Knightley. OK, now moving on, sort of.
The first three movies were good old fashioned fun that didn't take themselves too seriously. I enjoyed them all very much and have seen them numerous times. I thought Verbinski did a hell of a job, considering he was a punk rock video director before a filmmaker. When I heard a fourth movie was being made, I got super excited. However, I had a stirring feeling of disappointment when I found out Verbinski was not directing. I'm not down with Rob Marshall- I thought Chicago was overrated and Nine was a confusing and slow mess. But, it's a Pirates movie, so I figured it'd be fun.
Since I'm kinda pressed for time, I will sum up what I liked and didn't like.
FIrst, the cast were great as per usual. Visually it was entertaining and the movie moved along at a nice pace... for the first hour. That, and Penelope Cruz is hot!!! And she did a great job as Angelica. Blackbeard was a cool villain, and Ian McShane does a fantastic job. There's a creepy scene involving mermaids, and that got a good reaction from those at the theatre.
The bad... is everything else. First off, Barbossa is in the movie for only 20 minutes. The last hour is boring, drags a lot, and that's not all- there's a MAJOR plot hole involving the fountain of youth which is really annoying. And the 3D sucked.
Overall, this is not a bad movie, but the writers are running out of ideas and it's clear.