Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

Directed by Rob Marshall 

Written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio 

Starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, and Geoffry Rush 

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is perhaps the most interesting movie so far this year. This is a back handed complement but I was expecting this. The film was directed by Rob Marshall who directed best picture winner Chicago along with Nine (the musical with Daniel Day Lewis not the puppet doll one) and Memoirs of Geisha. Looking at that choice made me wonder, what characteristics make him suitable for a action comedy for families when all of his other films were either musicals or dramas.

 Also the reports were say that both Orlando Bloom and Kira Knightly would not return for this new film. This made sense since there storyline was nicely wrapped up in the third film but the were an essentially one of the biggest part of the story in all of the first three films. So what were the writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio going to fill they large portion they had. Why not add new characters?

 Well they add new characters but that proves unsuccessful for the writers. It seems is that there love story was too big to remove from the film, as the writers struggled massively with one of there worst scripts. The film had no structure to it and things just happened to move things along. The script is so jumbled with so much crap going on but they dont develop any of it. Its just everything in the film is a mess. I counted at least six different story lines in the film, thats right six. So you think im just going to go on and on about how bad the film is? Well im not becuase I surprisingly liked the film even with alot of shortcomings.

 Pirates of the Carriben is the dopiest film I have seen in quite some time. I mean mermaids zombies really in a pirates film. It turns out the unorganized script added something, an element of surprise. To tell you the truth I did not know who the villain was or what was going to happened. I mean you got Blackbeard, Captin Barbarossa, the Spanish, and Captin Jack himself all chasing after this Fountain of Youth so who knows what will happen.

 The action and overall look of the film is jaw dropping. Each action scene has the same type of excitement and wit as any of the other Pirate films with Captin Jack jumping like his drunken self. The film is shot on a giant scale with grand imagery that reminded me of Disney's last live action film Tron Legacy. Its not the film has a techno vibe but just a fantastic look that makes my jaw drop. The sounds are great as a chirp from a bird actually alerted me and made me jump in my seat which is reminiscent of Tron Legacy as well. 

 Overall Pirates of the Caribbean is a silly dumb film that is not close to the quality of its predessors becuase of a terrible script and the missing characters but it offers a few thrills, chills, and laughs. 7/10.