I'm over it.

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2011)

"Gentlemen, the fountain is the prize. Mermaid waters, that be our path." Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)
In "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," CaptainJack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) searches for the fountain of youth with the welcome help of Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and the usual suspects. The action is incessant, the eccentric characters plentiful, and the adventure as a whole increasingly thin, an overload of trying hard to be quirky and ending up jerky. Even cameos by Judi Dench and Keith Richards can't surface this sunken treasure.
Jack and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) try to beat Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter (Cruz) to the fountain. While the addition of dangerous mermaids adds glamour and sex to a frequently unsexy franchise (faithful to its family orientation), this enormous franchise needs to drink from that fountain itself. Johnny Depp's drunken, fey pirate is getting old (he did get an Oscar nomination back when this was fresh stuff in 2003), the affectations merely keeping us from understanding what he is saying rather than adding to his characterization.
Additionally, the fight scenes rival Lord of the Rings for their excessive number and blinding cutting, leaving one to wonder if director Rob Marshall didn't just take footage from other swashbuckling movies. But the greatest thief of all is the 3-D pirate of lighting: The process drains light from scenes, and not just in this film. I'm a big supporter of 2-D.
And, yes, I'm over this franchise. When Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane make me think of their previous acting triumphs rather their respective roles as Barbossa and Blackbeard, when the addition of a clichéd love between a mermaid and a preacher make you beg for the return of Orlando and Keira, and when Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz can't make me forget this is a dull sequel, then it's time to let someone else handle the critique of the next installment.