Film Review: Captain Jack is back in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’

Jack Sparrow is back! Oops, I mean Captain Jack Sparrow is back. One of the most popular character in recent film history, it’s hard to get tired of Captain Jack. But honestly, I wasn’t too excited for another Pirates of the Caribbean movie. My favorite was the first film. It had an engaging storyline and great pacing for a pretty long movie. The second and third seemed to drag a bit, but Captain Jack’s charm livened it up a bit. The same goes for this new one. With the exception of a few cool scenes, it’s just another Pirates movie.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, there is a race to the Fountain of Youth. The English, Spanish and the evil pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) are racing to claim it first. After getting tricked by an old flame, Angelica (Penelope Cruz), Jack is taken prisoner on Blackbeard’s ship. In turn, the England’s ship is being ruled by, surprisingly, Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush). The Spanish set sail with an unknown agenda. As they compete to get there, they encounter dangerous obstacles and lots of adventure.

As I pointed out before, Captain Jack is the real reason people come back to see these films. Johnny Depp gives Jack the crazy charm we all have come to love. He’s the most entertaining aspect of the movie. Geoffrey Rush is just as entertaining. I think I like his character in this film much more than in the previous films. Watching Barbosa captaining England’s ship was funny. Ian McShane plays the evil Blackbeard well, and actually that’s not much of a surprise.

As for Penelope Cruz, I was expecting some crazy chemistry between the two. I didn’t detect that. Their connection was flat and underwhelming. A love interest for Jack just doesn’t work for me. The other romantic aspect of the movie fell to a young couple, a missionary and a mermaid. They were no match to Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley’s romance in the previous films. I don’t even know why they needed to add the new romance to the movie! They didn’t set up the characters so the audience can develop a connection with them. So I ended up not caring about them. I hope that if they continue with more sequels, they don’t expand these characters’ arcs.

There’s so much action throughout the film. Some scenes seemed like déjà vu. I felt like there were different versions of them were in the previous Pirates films. But then again, I’m not action-savvy, so I’m bad at judging things like that. However, the mermaid scene was amazing, my favorite scene of the movie. Let’s just say these mermaids aren’t like Ariel.

If you really love the Pirates movies and/or really love Johnny Depp, then you’ll enjoy this film and I recommend it to you. (Also, stay after the credits, there’s a very short funny scene.)  If you’re tired of them or don’t care, I wouldn’t recommend it. The movie is long and the 3D is unimpressive; you’re better off renting it in my opinion. Captain Jack may be back, but I wished he brought a better movie back with him.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will release in theaters on Friday, May 20^th.

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