Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

I challenge you to think of five fourth franchise installments of quality within the last two decades. Sure, the fourth Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies were both pretty decent, and it’s not completely unheard of for a fourth franchise installment to actually be a quality film, but most filmmakers find it hard to keep recycled characters interesting after three films already having focused on their exploits. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides isn’t the perfect example of a four-quel done right, but it is a very enjoyable, well-acted, surprisingly original entry in a franchise that many had, prior to this film’s announcement, assumed was dead. 

The movie picks up at an unspecified time, probably a few years after the events of At World’s End. It finds Captain Jack Sparrow and his first mate, Joshamee Gibbs, running from custody in London, shipless, crew-less, and seemingly hopeless. Jack soon finds himself face-to-face with the King of England, and, soon after, reunited with sometimes-friend-sometimes-enemy Captain Barbossa, who is now a British naval officer. The King wants Jack, under command of Barbossa, to beat the Spanish in a race to uncover the legendary Fountain of Youth. After one of Jack’s signature daring escapes, and a series of events which land him with former lover Angelica, he finds himself scrubbing decks on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by the much feared pirate Blackbeard, who also happens to be in search of the Fountain of Youth. And so all three sides (the Spanish, the British, and Blackbeard) find themselves striving for a common goal. However, there’ll be no teaming up in this installment. 

The three teams of treasure hunters are very individualized, which makes for some interesting shades of grey instead of the usual good versus evil that’s normally found in the Pirates series. I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll just say that Jack’s skills in double-crossing come in rather handy later in the film, and he switches sides a few times throughout the movie, but usually lands somewhere between the three distinct groups. It’s very entertaining to watch everyone’s favorite buccaneer really running the show this time around, and one of the film’s best elements is its sense of looseness, never getting too caught up in any one sub-plot-line and always moving along. It’s a problem that heavily plagued the other two Pirates sequels, and it’s nice to see that the filmmakers have really taken the time to address it this time around. 

Another point where the film comes out barrels blazing is its performances. Ian McShane could’ve been a bit more intimidating and scary in his role as Blackbeard (he came across as rather unintentionally goofy at some points) but he still gave a very solid, albeit untraditional performance as the legendary pirate. Penelope Cruz also had some great moments in her role and definitely played a believable lady-pirate and ex-lover to Jack. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush were both spectacular as usual, showing a surprising amount of chemistry in this sequel. It’s apparent that they’ve worked together before and are really beginning to catch each other’s vibes and play off of them extraordinarily well. The entire supporting cast is very likable, and I never once found myself missing Keira Knightley or Orlando Bloom. 

None of this is to say that the film doesn’t come without its flaws, though. The movie ends up feeling rather anti-climactic, and the filmmakers were obviously leaving plenty of room for a sequel (...five-quel?), which makes the movie feel just a tad incomplete once the credits roll. Although the story feels original, it does borrow from some elements of previous installments. There’s plenty of trekking across unknown terrain, the usual invincible baddies are in place (though they’re not as numerous as in other entries), and there are enough huge sword fights to fill a pirate ship. Because of this, it’s a bit strange that there were points in the movie that felt a bit, well, pointless. Some scenes dragged on and outstayed their welcome, and other just felt out of place in a movie about pirates (the King’s palace scene: case in point). These problems do not ruin the movie, but when they’re there, they’re there, and they rear their ugly heads into otherwise enjoyable portions of the film far too often. 

The fourth Pirates movie does something that most fourth installments fail to do: it reinvigorates a dying franchise and gives hope to characters that no one wants to say goodbye to. Hopefully the film will do well enough to spark a fifth installment, which will give the filmmakers the ideal opportunity to perfect the Pirates formula with another un-convoluted story and grant Captain Jack the opportunity to set sail at least one more time. But for now, we have On Stranger Tides, which, in the end, does its job and provides a suitably swashbuckling kick-off to the summer season. 

Final Score:

7.0/10
"Good"