On All Too Familiar Tides
There is a moment in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides where Jack Sparrow is beginning to engage in overwrought swordplay with an imposter. His foe nimbly leaps up to the banister of the room they are fighting in, standing above Jack. This leads Jack to try and follow his opponent to the banister, but rather than emulate his foe and leap onto the banister to join him, Jack opts for an elevator-esque device to propel him onto his foe’s level. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, a tired Sparrow who isn’t able to quite pull together the same thrills that made the first film in the franchise so entertaining.
On Stranger Tides continues the story of the notorious pirate Jack Sparrow as he goes on a quest to find the fountain of youth. The film opens with Jack’s capture and eventual escape in London, in what is probably the most well-done sequence in the entire movie. After this the audience discovers Penelope Cruz is attempting to recruit different pirates by disguising herself as Sparrow; though when we discover who she is working for, it makes you wonder why she would bother imitating Sparrow in the first place. We also discover that Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) is now working for the British Empire, and subsequently attempts to recruit Jack to find the fountain of youth with him. Here the British Empire, sending Barbossa out on a mission that is of vital importance to the empire, seems to have forgotten Barbossa is a notorious pirate who has attacked Britain time and time again. The logical errors continue as the story goes on; memorizing a map is supposed to be important early in the story, but then it appears everyone who sees this map instantly retains it down to the last detail with no issue.
Overall the action moves along fairly well, though none of these sequences really dazzle like the earlier films. There are no spectacular monsters in On Stranger Tides, and most of the scenes with Sparrow seem to be re-enacted from the first film, just set in different locations. The only real creatures we get in On Stranger Tides are the mermaids, which are fairly convincing and are actually probably the most interesting aspect of the film outside of Depp. The problem is that’s not something you want in a movie like this. The superfluous mermaid and man romantic subplot is tiresome, as it does little more than make the film longer, but it will probably please more people than it annoys.
The acting in On Stranger Tides leaves a little to be desired; Depp and Rush do well in their roles, but Cruz doesn’t create a very convincing pirate, and the film’s main villain, played by Ian McShane, doesn’t really establish a very threatening presence. The movie rarely relies on it’s acting and instead focuses on action scenes that don’t excite the audience, but rather just pass time.
The film’s director, Rob Marshall, has attempted to find his niche every since directing 2002’s Oscar-winning Chicago. After delving into art-film with 2005’s middle-of-the-road received Memoirs of a Geisha, he returned to musicals with 2009’s Nine, which wasn’t well received. On Stranger Tides may escape this fate because of affiliation with a series that has big names, but ultimately suffers from the same problems as Nine; a well-cast genre film which takes no risks, and delivers no real memorable scenes. In fact the film is much like Depp’s pirate, a tired genre film trying to give us thrills we’ve seen before, but it can’t quite deliver the same action we’ve liked in the past. The movie is forgettable; you’ll enjoy yourself while you’re watching, but you won’t remember the movie a year later, or maybe even as you’re walking out of the theatre.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides receives a 4/10
If you want to see Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it will screening in Pruis Hall this Friday night as part of Ball State’s Friday Night Filmworks.
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