Wow, almost as bad as The Happening

Rating: 1/10 (22 May 2011)

Just be entertaining. But, you couldn't even do that could you Pirates4. Oh well, you'll be too busy counting your money to care anyway, wont you. Nice job marketing department.
I went into this with the idea that they were going to strip it down a bit, compared to the last two, and maybe reel in the silliness a bit. It looked like they did try to do that, but they forgot to insert anything to take the silliness's place.
The acting, except for Stephen Graham (he was good so his role functioned well), was RIDICULOUSLY bad. Johnny Depp was as idiotic, if not more, in his attempt to portray a character than ever. And his character was as inconsistent throughout the movie as ever. There is no definition of character in Jack Sparrow. It's just a matter of catering to the audience scene by scene. Jack Sparrow isn't a multifaceted man (manly, funny, romantic, etc.) he is just a plot device used by over-payed scared writers to illicit whatever response from the audience that their research has proved will entire people to continue paying for this product.
Penelope Cruz's character, was never anything more than just Penelope Cruz reading cue cards looking hot trying to exude sex appeal to entire male viewers. Neither she nor Depp ever looked like they felt what they were saying or ever actually became their character.
Ian McShane was also just going through motions.
Stephen Graham though somehow managed to understand his character and he disappeared into it, adding something to it. Kudos to him. He must have ignored the director and just went on instinct.
I liked Thor a lot because it entertained me. Pirates4 didn't. It was predictable and not funny. Instead of being a convincing charade it was a transparent one.
The audience I was with wasn't laughing much either. This movie is a waste of time and I'm betting the great reviews it's gotten on IMDb are paid for written by plants.
Hopefully it's another 2 years at least before the Pirates of the Caribbean machine begins casting it's misleading spell over the world with it's slick, sophisticated, tricky, deceptive advertising methods that lead people to believe the product is more than it is. The marketing for THIS piece of junk was great at concealing just how empty and pointless this film is.
Every aspect of this movie, every scene of it is designed only to cater to the audience. No vision other than cashing in.