Good! But it felt like we skipped a film?

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2011)

It did feel like Stanger Tides was actually part 5, and we skipped over part 4.
First off, I'll say the film was solid. The mermaid sequences were stunning, Blackbeard was stellar in every way, and I loved the twist ending with the surprise motivation of the Spanish.
But as for the rushed feeling, for one, there are a number of things we are just told to accept from the beginning of the film such as Barbossa having the peg leg and being in the British service,,,,, OK,,, perhaps not that big of a deal, but what about this, Cruz's character has come to accept Black Beard as her father. Fair enough, but wouldn't that have been much more powerful if we had gotten to know each character first and then in a "Luke I am your father" moment seen her learn that he was in fact her father. Instead, we're just told that she's learned this and any build up to the discovery is hacked off at the knees.
But more importantly perhaps was the lack of character development in some areas. Most specifically with our new priest. Why was he there again? It's not really clear. And for the love story between he and the mermaid, which was in effect taking the place of the displaced couple of previous films, the pair felt extremely underdeveloped.
Likewise was the back story of Cruz and Depp. I mean it was there, they did mention it, but it just didn't really resonate as significant.
NOW, those two issues can be resolved by a future film, and should a 5th film bulk up the characters of Cruz & the priest and their motivations and/or relationship with Depp, then this film will grow stronger in retrospect, but as it stands now, it just felt like either they were underdeveloped, or that their back story deserved more than an "oh by the way" and perhaps should have been explored previously, before embarking on this story itself.