(I try to avoid spoilers, but I do discuss plot points.)
Running Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Rob Marshall
Quick Impressions:
When Jack Sparrow was introduced, I inwardly groaned, thinking that the franchise had lost its sparkle. The first twenty to forty minutes of the movie felt incredibly forced, as if it were trying too hard to have the eye-catching zest of the first installment, a film whose charm felt effortless. For me, the highlight of this dull opening was an unexpected—but unfortunately all-too-brief—surprise cameo by Judy Dench. Oh that’s right, I recalled suddenly. She was in Nine, and Rob Marshall is sitting in the director’s chair this time around. Please don’t let this movie be as bad as Nine.
Just when I had made up my mind to settle for enjoying Johnny Depp’s personal charisma as a winning character in a mediocre movie, the pace suddenly picked up dramatically. When not trying for forced chuckles, the movie found its sea legs as a gripping adventure with a palpable sense of menace and danger, much darker than the first three films, both in tone and—well, literally darker. The majority of the action occurred at night, which rather fittingly evoked the lighting scheme of the amusement park attraction and also matched the newer more menacing tone.
The introduction of Penelope Cruz’s Angelica marked the turning point when On Stranger Tides began to improve—gradually. The movie didn’t redeem itself right away but instead became promising and eventually did fulfill that promise. By the time the crew of the Queen Anne’s Revenge went fishing for mermaids, I was hooked. The scenes on the island were gripping and full of life and color. Nothing seemed stale or rehashed or forced. The story stood on its own merits, by far a better, more engaging, and more coherent movie than either Dead Man’s Chest or At World’s End.
Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane shone in their roles, and I considered them an upgrade from Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. While I did miss the comic relief provided in earlier installments by the two bumbling pirates and the two befuddled English sailors, I found the unexpected love story between Syrena and the missionary strangely satisfying and ultimately intriguing. And the leader of the Spanish expedition uttered my favorite line in the entire movie, creating one of two moments in which I actually laughed out loud.
The Good and the Could Have Been Better:
Blackbeard’s ability to control his ship came as a pleasant surprise and provided the first supernatural element in the story. The way the Revenge obeyed him was cool and ultimately gave Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa character a magnificent and memorable exit. In the context of a series that has hinged on ghostly pirates, cursed gold, Davy Jones, the Flying Dutchmen, Calypso, the Kracken, and the resurrection of the dead, however, Blackbeard’s responsive ship seemed like a token gesture at the supernatural which arrived too late in the film and was extremely underutilized.
Similarly, the mermaids added an element of magic and of beauty to the film, and the Syrena character and her response to the good-hearted missionary created a side plot I had not anticipated yet genuinely enjoyed. But Serena’s deus ex machina move near the end of the movie really did not make much sense, and that bothered me. What on earth were her motivations? Why would she go out of her way to help people who had abused her? I do hope we see more of her and the underdeveloped but likeable missionary in the next installment.
Finally, Penelope Cruz and Johnny Depp have fantastic, electric chemistry. Why does it take so long to introduce Angelica? More to the point—Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush have even better chemistry as the perpetually bickering captains Jack and Barbossa. When they are together, the audience enjoys watching them so much that the characters out of sight quickly become out of mind as well. Barbossa and Jack seem to belong together, and Jack somehow seems more relevant and less out of place when paired with Barbossa. So why does it take so long to get the two together? Why? I mean, we had to watch ten minutes of Jack walking across a buffet table. Surely things could have been retooled just a bit.
Best Action Sequence:
Personally, I thought the movie really hit its stride during the mermaid capture. I lost myself in the movie at this point. Jack and Barbossa’s incredibly short duel in Ponce de Leon’s ship was also fantastic, more for the verbal repartee than the physical blows exchanged.
Best Scene Visually:
I wanted to see the movie in 3D after reading that they had actually taken 3D cameras on location in the jungle. The scenes filmed on the island are all spectacular, particularly the scenes where they wade through the waters, overgrown with vines. Another nice moment visually occurs when Jack gets a clue from nature about the whereabouts of the fountain. His method of entering the fountain area was also eye-catching. Aesthetically, the scenes with the mermaids were also very pleasing both in terms of look and sound. (Additionally, a couple of cute scenes deliberately evoke moments in the theme park ride.)
Best Surprise:
While I knew Keith Richards would be making another cameo, his scene was particularly delightful, especially his exit.
Best Scene:
Jack’s escape from the Spaniards delighted me beyond words. His method genuinely surprised me—and made me laugh out loud in shock—and his chemistry with Barbossa was entertaining enough to make me wish they’d spent more time in each other’s company earlier in the movie.
The Performances:
Johnny Depp still sparkles as Captain Jack Sparrow, although many of his best lines are lost because the film does not showcase them. The beginning of the movie was flat out bad, but even if the rest of it had been that bad, I would have continued watching it, anyway, and also gone to any future sequels simply because Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow is reason enough to buy a ticket. The film finally does what the franchise should have long ago by making Jack the male lead with the attractive love interest. Because he is truly the lead in this movie, we also see more of Jack, and in some ways, see him in a different light. Johnny Depp is a fantastic actor. No matter what we learn about Jack, never for a moment do we doubt him. He’s Captain Jack Sparrow through and through.
Ian McShane is also outstanding as Blackbeard, perhaps the strongest and most-captivating character in the movie, something clear from the moment he appears on screen. McShane’s Blackbeard is a commanding presence—smart, ruthless, relentless, and almost inexplicably black-hearted without ever seeming cartoonish or silly. He really is scary. He really is evil. Why is he so evil? For no good reason—the evilest explanation of them all! Why when he acknowledges that his daughter is his best creation does he sabotage her efforts to redeem him right until the bitter end? He’s enigmatic, possibly even underdeveloped, but he’s genuinely evil and incredibly awesome.
Penelope Cruz as Angelica lights up the screen from the moment of her entrance, too, which is saying a lot in her case because she first appears when the movie is still quite bad. She brings surprising depth to the character of Angelica. We see the confliction, pain, and frustration that an inferior actress could not possibly have conveyed given the same lines. When she screams at Jack, “You bastard!” the audience believes that she means it. She may be a character in a pirate movie, but there’s nothing light-hearted or tongue-in-cheek about her attitude. Angelica behaves exactly as if she is living in a realistic drama. She is a real person and, as it happens, a really sexy person who fortunately has fantastic chemistry with her co-star.
Reprising the role of Barbossa, Geoffrey Rush is given rather strange material to work with in the first part of the film. He plays the character to a T, however, and by the end of the movie, I was cheering harder for him than for anyone else. Unlike Blackbeard, he’s a likeable rogue—a villain through and through, but a villain you can cheer for. Sure he’s a blackguard, but he’s not a monster. He lives by the pirate code, after all. To show Barbossa deliberately playing the fool without playing Barbossa as a fool is a difficult task, but of course, a gifted actor like Rush can pull it off with enough panache to make the audience relieved when the old sea dog’s true colors begin to shine through toward the end of the movie.
Ordinarily I like Richard Griffiths, but I thought his portrayal of King George was lackluster and almost offensive. I don’t blame the actor. Clearly, he was playing the part as it was written, and the whole scene was a train wreck, needlessly juvenile and quite boring, going for cheap laughs because it did not know how to recapture the humor of the first film. I’m sure Griffiths was doing what the director wanted. Nevertheless, it was not his best work (even if my stepson did laugh when Jack called him “your hiney”).
I was glad to see the winning Kevin McNally reprising the role of Gibbs once again, and lesser known actors Sam Clafin and Astrid Berges-Frisbey were a welcome addition as the age-old odd couple, the missionary and the mermaid. The reason for the missionary’s inclusion in the movie was rather mysterious until Berges-Frisbey showed up as the beautiful and bewitching Syrena. If a moon-eyed young man and a beautiful ingénue have to be in every Pirates film (and, apparently, based on the inclusion of these two, they do) then I’d much rather have Clafin and Berges-Frisbey as a side-story than Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley cluttering up the main plot. In terms of acting, their performances were not particularly remarkable, but both of them are very pretty and hopefully the writers have something fascinating in mind for their characters in future Pirates installments.
The Negatives:
After the eye-catching, somewhat shocking opening scene (that made my stepson jump), the first thirty minutes or so of the movie felt tired, vaguely contrived, and not as funny as they wanted to be. In particular, the scene with the king seemed like a convenience to show off the use of 3D in a surprisingly ineffective way. (I understand why Jack wanted to eat a cream puff, and how it could have gotten stuck on the chandelier, but what did Jack really think he would accomplish by walking across the table? The movie was a bit long, and this part could have been shortened considerably. Why not begin with Jack waking up on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, unable to remember how he got on the ship?)
Fans of the franchise might also be disappointed by the darker tone and relative lack of humor in this installment. Several moments caused me to smile, but I only laughed out loud three times, and one of those times was a reaction to my stepson’s mirth at hearing Jack call King George “your hiney.” For me, the movie picked up once Jack met Angelica and found its legs during the mutiny. The lack of laugh-out-loud moments is not exactly a fault because the movie is clearly going for a darker tone of adventure and genuine danger; however, many of Jack’s funniest moments get glossed over, downplayed by the director’s choice not to showcase them. The choice works, but I do wonder if a different choice might not have worked even better. Previous Pirates movies included a number of rollicking scenes and a playful mood to match Jack’s comedic antics. In this film, Jack seems like a clown who has mistakenly wondered into the lion tamer’s ring of the circus.
The film’s only real flaw is that the first forty minutes or so feel slow, predictable, hollow, and forced, but that is a major flaw. Forty minutes is a long, long time.
Overall:
On Stranger Tides has serious flaws (every minute that transpires until Jack wakes up on the Queen Anne’s revenge is one of them), but it is still a highly enjoyable film and probably the best in the series after the original. Anyone who’s a fan of Captain Jack Sparrow should happily fork over enough gold to see it in the theater—in 3D if possible.