Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Comes Home
October 18, 2011, marked the home video release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on DVD, Blu-ray, digital, and VOD. This hugely popular entry into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has racked up record box-office figures and continues the adventures of the ever-popular Jack Sparrow.
Yes, Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow—the man everyone wishes pirates were like—and at times it seems he’s having almost as much fun with the role as he did when he filmed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Unfortunately, at other times he seems a bit tired and bored.
What is it about sequels that makes them like copies of copies? With each successive chapter of the story, something is lost. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is as much a visual feast as the previous films in the series, but is less cohesive. The combination of humor and action which so thrilled us in the first Pirates of the Caribbean seems unable to sustain a story that cannot adequately be stretched to 2 hours and 17 minutes.
It’s not that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a bad movie—Depp and Geoffrey Rush raise it above that level—but that it’s an overly long okay movie. The addition of Penelope Cruz as Angelica Teach, a woman from Sparrow’s past, adds interest, and Ian McShane is a suitable Blackbeard. The problem is that the cast (and the costumes, and the graphics) are better than the script and screenplay.
Avid fans of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films will probably enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but one should expect mixed reactions from those not devoted to the series.
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