Captain Jack Sparrow is back for another swashbuckling adventure in Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which hits theaters May 20th. The movie reunites Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush as Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa in another adventure separate from the previous three films made.
It has been four years since the last Pirates film, and Johnny Depp proves that both his portrayal of Jack Sparrow and the character itself will never grow old and boring. In this new installment of the blockbuster franchise, Sparrow finds himself in search of the Fountain of Youth while facing off against the film's villain, Blackbeard (portrayed by Ian McShane). Another new edition to the cast is Penelope Cruz's fast-talking female pirate Angelica, who certainly gives Depp a run for the money with the quirky one-liners department. Gone is the lovely and attractive pair that is Will and Elizabeth Turner (portrayed by Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley) and the unspoken replacement comes in the form of newcomers Sam Claflin as the virtuous missionary Philip and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as the mermaid Syrena.
Directed by Rob Marshall and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, this new chapter has just as much sword fights and oceanic adventures as the previous episodes, and manages to capture the heart of the first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl once more. After the previous two train-wreck installments in the franchise, I was a bit skeptical about them making another one. But I must admit that I was proven wrong. Jack Sparrow's quest for the Fountain of Youth was refreshing and engaging, and the dangerous obstacles faced out at sea (zombies and vampiric human-eating mermaids) made the movie, which runs at 137 minutes, go by rather quickly.
The only problem I found with this film was the lack of Will and Elizabeth Turner. While they were not my favorite characters, they still played an important role in the previous three movies, and their absence was very noticeable. At times, I felt that Johnny Depp was carrying the full weight of the film on his shoulders, and without the wit and charm of Captain Jack Sparrow, this movie would have been a complete disaster. Maybe it was just me, but this film felt more like a spinoff series of The Pirates of the Caribbean rather than another sequel. While I was watching the film, I felt that I was watching a movie with Jack Sparrow in it, but it wasn't the Pirates franchise that I have come to know and love.
While entertaining and full of action-packed adventure, I am not entirely convinced that this franchise needed a fourth installment. Sure, Johnny Depp still has what it takes to entertain an audience in the role of Jack Sparrow, but was it really necessary to make a fourth movie? I wonder.
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