After three huge, epic films, this fan-fiction arrives.

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2015)

I am a huge fan of the first three Pirates films, and after four years, a stand-alone sequel came out, directed by Rob Marshall instead of Gore Verbinski. When I first saw it, I thought it was great.
But now that I think about it, I realizeit was kind of underwhelming.
What made the first three great (in my opinion, at least) was the spectaclea bombast of action, humor, adventure, mythology, and horror, all shot with Verbinski's trademark visual flair, with particular emphasis on colors, detail, and shading.
How does OST compare?
If the first three were a bottle of rum, OST is a wine cooler. Not really meaning it's bad, but it's really dilutedjust very underwhelming after three huge movies.
The action scenes ranged from mediocre to slightly above average. Sure, they had their epic moments, but those moments just didn't make up for the majority of the film.
What really got on my nerves most about this movie was the lack of originality. The plot is an adaptation of Tim Powers's novel On Stranger Tides, only with some Pirates of the Caribbean elements thrown in there. The zombie pirate crewmen could have been cool, but they resembled angry sunburned bikers more than zombie pirates. Throw some decomposing flesh, some stitched-up mouths, glowing eyes, and a body bedecked with voodoo tattoos in there, and make them walk like actual zombies! The mermaids were pretty cool, but the "nice" mermaid Syrena and her relationship with the clergyman Philip (is that his name) was just.silly. And Blackbeardson of a @#$%^not only is he a nonfiction historical character that wasn't even alive at the time (they sort of explain it in the movie though), but he's the MOST clichéd pirate character you could ever resurrect. He's one of the worst parts of this moviedull, unoriginal, his character motivation is complete poppycock.sighright after the sea demon of awesomeness Davy Jones, you give us a boring coward with Snooki's skin.
At least Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow was still entertaining to watch, Penelope Cruz's character Angelica was interesting enough, and the film still had some humorous moments that hearkened back to the first three.
But, like I said before, overall, the film isn't really badjust weak. It felt like a fan-fiction compared to the others.