Good but not great

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2015)

Remember those straight-to-video sequels Disney often releases. On Stranger Tides feels like one of them. By itself it may count with a great production and actually not a bad story to bring to film, but it doesn't really live up to the previous films. The original trilogy felt like that. A trilogy. Curse of the Black Pearl's story may not have much to do story-wise with the other two, but at the end, the three felt like a saga. This feels more like a stand alone film, which, have it been the first one to be released, it wouldn't have felt as bad as it does now.
When it comes to the story, it's not all that entertaining. While the first one brought a fresh piece to cinema, and introduced us to beloved characters in an epic adventure, the second and third one brought those characters to develop, finish personal business and get into new adventures. This one leaves everything aside going for a fresh start, not really giving much importance to where the characters were before, and bringing some new ones which don't really grow into us.
The mermaid sequence is the one worth watching in the whole movie. I wish the part with Ponce de Leon's ship would have carried us to a more epic battle, and I feel the same way about the part where Jack and Barbosa steal the silver chalices from the Spaniards. Which, BTW, the Spaniards work as an antagonist to all, Barbosa, Jack Sparrow, and Blackbeard, but in an attempt to reduce screen time and avoid saturating the story, they don't develop those characters (or at least one of them), and don't give them a motivation to go to the fountain, making all their role in the film feel a little off.
Aside from that Angelica and Blackbeard could be characters to look forward to in further films, and so are Philip and Serena. The cast of the fifth film has been announced and none of them are part of it. A film where all the major characters from the franchise have a worth part would be way too heavy, so if i had to choose, between bringing them back, or having more Will and Elizabeth, I would go with Will and Elizabeth any day. So yeah, stick with the original trilogy, but don't give this one the cold shoulder.