Captain Jack Sparrow is back, and this time he’s on the hunt for the famed Fountain of Youth. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides brings back Johnny Depp as the world’s most famous pirate, as well as Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa. New cast members include the villainous Blackbeard (Ian McShane), the fiery Angelica (Penelope Cruz), the religious Philip (Sam Claflin) and the mermaid Syrena (Astrid Berges-Frisbey).
On Stranger Tides introduces a slew of new characters, but Jack Sparrow remains the central figure. While this gives audiences even more opportunities to see Johnny Depp’s incredible performance, it also veers from the formula that made the original films so enjoyable; namely, Depp played the jester, the joker to the cast of main characters. When it comes down to it, there was not enough time spent on developing the new characters, and far too much time spent on Jack’s antics.
The movie featured some impressive visuals and a particularly well-done scene involving a vicious mermaid attack; however, there were far too many half-baked plot points and threads left haphazardly underdeveloped for the visuals and action sequences alone to make up for.
A fun summer movie to be sure. But On Stranger Tides remains the weakest film in the franchise and aside from Depp, offers up nothing special. Read the full review here.
Read the full review for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at Pop Goes the Culture. Share it, tweet it, leave a comment!
