Full Review of POTC: On Stranger Tides

[Captain Del]

Having seen the movie just last night, I felt it would be good to write up my review on it while it was still nice and fresh in my mind.

First off, let me start off by saying that while I am a huge Pirates of the Caribbean fan, I did my best to review it in the perspective of just a regular viewer. That way, it would be more balanced in terms of bias.

The Plot

Let me start off by saying that I found the plot for this movie a lot more interesting than the last two (Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.) It's flexibility in terms of adventuring to actual places outside of the Caribbean, the involvement of actual historical figures, and it's overall premise made it a lot more enjoyable for all viewers, instead of just the hardcore pirate fan. This plot felt like it was a completely different movie from all the others, yet still maintaining that Pirates of the Caribbean touch - which is a good thing, trust me.

A major plus about the plot line is that it takes us all back to the focus of the first movie - it being a pirate movie. Unlike the last two movies, which were very indepth in terms of the romance between Will and Elizabeth, this one does a pretty good job at bringing us back to the aspects that made us fall in love with this franchise the first time. There are only two minor romances in the film, both of which that are big enough as to influence the story, but not so large as to overshadow it.

Where the plot of this movie really shines, however, is the fact that it's a very well-rounded story in terms of all of it's characters. Jack may be the main character, but he doesn't necessarily dominate the screen - you'll find that about half of the movie is centralized around following Barbossa and Blackbeard (both of whom I'll get to in a second.)

The Actors

Johnny Depp did a very good job at covering Jack Sparrow, as usual. I think that the main reason why he may appear "off" in this film (trust me, it's still good ole' Jack) is by the fact that he doesn't have a Captain in front of his name - i.e., he himself doesn't run the characters in the movie. At the same time, however, this gives us a new side to Jack Sparrow, away from the commanding aspects of him. It may be odd to see him as a member of somebody elses crew, but Depp still does a pretty good job of recreating him in that spectrum.

The addition of Penelope Cruz to the series is a welcome one, in some respects. When she's in her prime in the movie, the aggressive, fiery Angelica, she does a very convincing job at it. However, at some points, her acting becomes very placid, and you kinda lose that sense of her being as ruthless as she should be.

Minor and secondary actors also do a very good job at capturing that pirate essence. But, forget about all of them - the acting in this movie is once again swept away by Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa) and, as a surprising addition to the powerhouses of this franchise, Ian McShane (Blackbeard.) Their presence in the movie overpowers that of anybody else in the movie, and you can be assured that when these two meet in the movie, sparks will fly.

The Setting

While the movie itself takes place is many awe-inspiring, beautiful areas that the movies haven't even covered before, where the characters are and why will become very confusing right after the start of the movie. You're going to need to have a pretty good ear to get an idea of where they are from time to time, because even I couldn't catch that. Not to say that the plot is hard to follow - just, the setting is.

Another thing is that between the 137 minutes this movie makes up, setting changes don't happen extremely often like the last few movies. This slower pace in terms of moving around might seem a little weird, but not too slow as so that the movie becomes unenjoyable. (Like the entire entrance of True Grit.)

Jack + Angelica = Meh.

I'll be perfectly honest - the idea of Jack falling in love with an old girlfriend made me skeptical. And, truth be told, it did it's job. I really did not find any pleasure in Jack romantically intermingling with Angelica, except for the few moments where he brings his humor to the stand (which often provides some of the best moments in the movie.) It just seemed off to me - there wasn't that zest like in the second movie when Jack kisses Elizabeth.

Overall

Overall, this movie does an outstanding job of matching up with, if not surpassing it's previous members. It's arguable as to whether this was the best movie in the series, but one thing is for certain in this old pirate's heart was that it certainly wasn't the worst. For any pirate fan, this movie is definately a must-see - and for regular viewers, yeah, go see it too.

So, my final verdict? Given it's substantial number of pros, matched with it's group of cons, Pirates of the Caribbean deserves four surly sailors...



....out of five.

[Harukantos]

I agree with our mate here. went to see it last night myself, and it was purely great. Does make me think the whole Queen Anne's Revenge on the game is a weak idea though. The zombies from the movies looked incredibly awesome, as in not grey or just copy pasted from another movie. Must say the movie was good for not being so much about the Caribbean.

[Blaze Skullshield]

Im curious as to you said angelica should be ruthless. Her goal is to save her fathers dying soul. And why did you sa jack still loved her, he marooned her at the end.

[The Skirata Clan]

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you you write a review. Without giving anything away but focusing on what's important for a film.

Thanks for the Spoiler Blaze.

[Blaze Skullshield]

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you you write a review. Without giving anything away but focusing on what's important for a film.

Thanks for the Spoiler Blaze.

Thought it was alright since were talking about the movie review......

[Solomon O]

I agree with most of what you said, this movie was PURE AWESOMENESS. It has to be one of my favourites in the series, probaly second, my favourite is the first.

Dont read last part of this sentance, might give something away.

What I ded whish to see was moreShip Battles, why didnt they have any?

[Dark_Pixie]

Best to refrain from reading these sorts of threads until you've seen the film. I agree with Solomon about the lack of -you know what-. (until I learn how to do the covered spoilers thing, that's what I'm doing)

[Bug]

The Queen Anne's Revenge was the Actual ship Not a model so that might answer your question Solomon.
I thought the movie was good but lost something on the cutting room floor...seemed a bit disjointed & left some things unfinished sequel to come or not. I heard there are 2 more Pirates movies to come yet. Loved Ian McShanes' Blackbeard

[Captain Sharktooth]

I am a huge POTC fan, but this wasn't the best movie. Sure, it had new settings and ideas added in that made it unique; that's what the good thing about it was. But it lacked some piratey 'moments' that were in the other movies. (If you haven't seen the movie, you may not wanna read this.) A lot of the movie was mostly traveling, and since there were no ship battles, that made it less 'piratey.' Also, when Blackbeard is first mentioned, he is "the pirate that all pirates fear." And he wasn't as fearful and intimidating as you would think, although the character was played very well. And why was the Catholic man an important character? Sure, he was trying to help save their souls, but I thought that wasn't necessary for the movie, and didn't give me the pirate feel.

But, this movie was still really good.

[Joshua Coalskull]

Did anybody besides me get the Pirates Online reference???

[Dog Gunmorgan]

what is this PO reference of which you speak?

[Blaze Skullshield]

Originally Posted by Captain Sharktooth

I am a huge POTC fan, but this wasn't the best movie. Sure, it had new settings and ideas added in that made it unique; that's what the good thing about it was. But it lacked some piratey 'moments' that were in the other movies. (If you haven't seen the movie, you may not wanna read this.) A lot of the movie was mostly traveling, and since there were no ship battles, that made it less 'piratey.' Also, when Blackbeard is first mentioned, he is "the pirate that all pirates fear." And he wasn't as fearful and intimidating as you would think, although the character was played very well. And why was the Catholic man an important character? Sure, he was trying to help save their souls, but I thought that wasn't necessary for the movie, and didn't give me the pirate feel.

But, this movie was still really good.

To be releastic, it was rare for pirates to go into battle. As those voyages you see take somewhere around 10 days. And pirates didnt go into battle unless they needed or wanted to.

[Captain Sharktooth]

Originally Posted by Blaze Skullshield

To be releastic, it was rare for pirates to go into battle. As those voyages you see take somewhere around 10 days. And pirates didnt go into battle unless they needed or wanted to.

But compared to the other movies, there was way less action, and I was comparing this one to the other movies anyways.

[Tiberius Fireskull]

I just watched the movie today. First, let me say that it was really really good. It was different from the others though. There were much fewer settings, and it mainly took place in London, Queen Anne's Revenge, and The Island of the Fountain of Youth. Nonetheless, it was very good. I'm going to give a review similar to that of Del's, just to state my opinion. There may be a few spoilers that I didn't put in spoiler tags... sorry about this. :P

Characters

I overall really liked the diversity of characters. Jack was of course brilliant as always. He actually made a few more jokes than usual in this one that were a bit more clever too, including the part where he was in front of King George, and he called him "Your Highny". Angelica was a good addition, and I feel that she was a bit of a more vicious Elizabeth Swann, if you will. She was one of those people who is kind and loving one minute, and vicious and bloodthirsty the next. As for Blackbeard, not much to be said, but I overall liked his character. He was very greedy, and a perfect example is when he ended up trying to drink the Fountain water to save himself and take the life of Angelica. Barbossa was interesting this time around... he had the same personality, except that he is now a privateer for England until the very end of the story, but his appearance is quite different. He looked a bit more red to the face, and of course he was wearing different clothes. Not to mention his peg leg that also seconded as a rum holder. I do agree with Sharktooth that the Catholic Minister's character was a bit unnecessary, but he probably was mainly there for extracting what Blackbeard needed for the Fountain Ritual.

Plot

Most of you know that the objective of the story is to get to the Fountain of Youth, but it is complicated by the fact that there is more than one faction trying to get to it, Blackbeard and his crew (including Jack), Barbossa who is privateering for England, and the Spanish. Overall, the plot was pretty simple and easy to follow, but not extremely predictable. The one thing that bugged me a bit were the Zombies. They were the crew of Blackbeard (his officers mainly), but I felt that they didn't really have a purpose other than to intimidate.

Humor

This is the icing on the cake for Pirates of the Caribbean, and that is Jack and his humor. From trying to get the cream puff in King George's presence, his "abrupt" goodbye to Angelica, his interaction with the crew on the Queen Anne's Revenge, and him calling Blackbeard "Mr. Beard" at one point, it was a very funny movie. The humor was nice so that you could laugh once or twice instead of needing to just watch intense action all the time.

Ending

This next part contains a lot of spoilers, so the whole part is going to be in spoiler text.

The ending was good, I thought. This movie will probably end up like The Curse of the Black Pearl, as in that it is probably going to be somewhat separated from the next two movies (there will be a five and six), and it is really just setting the scene, with Barbossa captaining the Queen Anne's Revenge and Jack and Gibbs PROBABLY freeing the Black Pearl from the bottle Blackbeard trapped it in. Its hard to say if Angelica will be in the next movie(s), but I have a hunch that she will be. If you saw the scene after the credits, the voodoo doll of Jack washes up on the shores of her island, so she could use that a bit. They can definitely work with the ending they made... although I'm not sure if Barbossa will be coming back. It seemed like he had gone is own path.

Music

I remembered to put this one in before I posted. I know it seems like a small thing, but I'm big on music, so I think its important to put in. I noticed that they reused a lot of the music from the old movies, but there were a few original songs for this movie, such as the theme for Blackbeard and the main theme for On Stranger Tides (titled "On Stranger Tides"... duh...) and the slow, quiet but mysterious theme for the Mermaids. The music in this movie I thought was quite good.

Overall, I'd give this movie a similar rating as Del. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it actually was one of my favorites. It was original and fun. I'd definitely recommend seeing it.

[Davy_Mcwrecker]

actually, I bought the soundtrack, and the only FULLY reused song is the end credits, or he's a pirate. The other songs to some tunes, but didn't make it unoriginal, the Fully original songs are:

Angelica
Blackbeard
Mermaids ( The song Davy Fs was talking about. )
Palm tree escape
On stranger tides
&
South of Mermaids heaven ( jolly sailor bold wasn't on the soundtrack but WAS to be on the list.)