To call Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides more of the same might be underselling it, but it would still be mostly accurate. The plot features both new and returning characters searching for the Fountain of Youth and conveniently converging on one another, but if you’re a fan of the franchise you know why you’re watching this film and it’s damn sure not for the plot.
Pirates 4 does, however, feel like a decidedly smaller film than its predecessors. That’s not entirely because it’s the shortest film in the franchise either. And when I say this I mean it as a positive as I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle of the prior two films. To be honest, I don’t see where the $250 million production budgets for those features was spent, unless Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush substantially upped their asking price.
Rob Marshall replaces Gore Verbinski in the director’s chair for this fourth offering and gives the film more of an old-school globetrotting adventure vibe, replacing the blue Jell-O, CG tidal waves and giant squids that dominated the previous sequels with some nicely choreographed fight sequences, not entirely unlike some of his musical numbers in Chicago and/or Nine. This is one instance where a directorial change injects some life into a tired franchise.
Some of Marshall’s new wrinkles include a gang of vampire mermaids who attack a raft like those pesky fish from Piranha while letting out piercing screams that conjure up memories of the Predator. Other welcome additions include Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Penelope Cruz as his daughter Angelica, whose mysterious history with Jack Sparrow throws a little romantic tension into the fire, filling that “love-story” void left open by Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom’s departure.
The look of the film, on a whole, is very dark, especially for such a light-hearted adventure flick. This Blu-ray disc, however, is finally given an opportunity to show off its stuff when Jack and company leave the cellars of their ship and trudge through island greenery as they approach the Fountain.
Speaking of the Fountain, it got to the point where I didn’t care who got there first. Maybe it’s because Captain Jack has grown a bit stale to me over the years, or maybe it’s because I enjoyed what McShane brought to the evil Blackbeard character. I did, however, like how the film works as a stand-alone feature. You know, just in case you’ve forgotten the trilogy’s plot details over the past four years, or, as was my case, immediately after you left the theater in the summer of 2007.
When it comes to the home theater offerings, the film is available in about five different versions. I received the [amazon asin=”B004A8ZWUQ” text=”two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack”], which has just a fraction of the extras you’d find on the [amazon asin=”B0053Y7T1G” text=”five-disc set”]. That said, I can’t recommend any of them for purchase.
While I enjoyed On Stranger Tides more than any Pirates film since the original, it still feels rather slight and something I can’t imagine returning to. Rent it, and if you ever want to see it again I’m sure it will show up on cable hundreds of times before Captain Jack’s next adventure hits the big screen.
