Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger Tides

I have looking forward to this for a long time and am disappointed.

Even the movie is said to been shot in 3D, the quality of the effects is mediocre. For most of the time, 3D is not relevant and does not add to the immersion in the movie. I would recommend, not to watch this movie in 3D.

Jack Sparrow, sorry Captain Jack Sparrow (Johny Depp), is searching for the Fountain of Youth. Why is not quite sure. He meets Angelina (Penelope Cruz) an old love interest and daughter of Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) completes the main cast.

I liked the Barbossa of the first movies and understood why he behaved in the way portrayed. In this movie, he wants to kill Blackbeard because he lost a leg in a fight with him. This would have been in concordance with his former character.

But I doubt the Barbossa of the first movies would have used a poisoned blade.

Why Angelina is ready to give her life for her father is never made clear. One could argue, that she wants to save his soul with her sacrifice. Blackbeard accepts her death, which is in his character, but why didn't he kill the boy as that sacrifice would have given him many more years to live?

Jack seems to be clueless, even more than usual. It seems that he has been to the Fountain of Youth but didn't know the ritual. At the same time, I don’t think he really wanted eternity for himself.

Then we have the little love story between the mermaid Syrena and a priest which does not bring much to the movie. And some Spaniards who stay unnamed and uninteresting.

Gibbs returns, but others are deeply missed. I am not talking about Keira Kneightly or Orlanda Bloom. Their story has been brought to an conclusion. I miss Pintel and Ragetti (Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook) and Cotton (David Baillie). The crew played a major part in the first three installments and they are missed a lot.

Captain Teague (Keith Richards) has a brief appearance and this scene is one of the best in the movie.

So, what did we get? Sword fight? There are two fights, but nothing impressive. Nothing comes anyway near the first fight between Jack and Will Turner in the forge, the fight on the water-wheel or the final fight between Jack and Davie Jones.

But sure we get naval battle? Nope. The Spanish and Barbossa meet at sea, but (probably for budget reasons) they decide not to fight. Blackbeard has a beautiful ship, but we never see him using it to attack an other.

Locations? Locations are ok. Some are beautiful, some are ok and some just look too much like sets (Fountain of Youth).

Memorable lines? Nope.

Verdict: When I left the theatre, I gave the movie a rating of 6/10 (ten being best) but now, a few days later, I change the rating to 4/10.