by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor

Captain Jack Sparrow has become one of the most iconic characters in film of this decade (even showing up on Saturday Night Live being portrayed by Michael Bolton in a song that shares the same name). There is no denying the hold Jack Sparrow has over audiences. Disney Pictures knows this as well and that’s why they brought ol’ Captain Jack back for yet another outing despite most of the original production crew being gone. Pirates Of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides comes home to DVD to continue the multi-million Pirates movie franchise! The question is: does it hold up to its predecessors’ legacy?

When we last saw Jack (Johnny Depp), he had just finished wrapping up all of those pesky loose ends of the original trilogy of films, and was sailing off alone in search of the mystical Fountain of Youth. This pivotal concept was supposed to be the big setup for the future of the franchise. When we find Jack in the newest installment, he is on his way to London to save the life Gibbs (Kevin McNally), his former first mate, who is accused of being the pirate known as Captain Jack Sparrow. After a daring rescue attempt, Jack is reunited with Gibbs and the two men get some alone time to talk about what they have been up to since the last movie was over. Gibbs is very interested to know how things were going for Jack’s search for the Fountain of Youth, but as it turns out, Jack got bored and gave up the search. While the boys are busy talking, it turns out that their escape wasn’t quite foolproof and Jack lands himself infront of King George II, who wants to enlist Jack’s aid in finding the Fountain before the Spanish can claim it. King George has a few tricks up his sleeve and has enlisted the aid of Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in his quest for the rejuvenating waters. Jack makes another daring escape (involving some very impressive strategic planning) and bumps into his dad (Keith Richards), who proceeds to warn him about the Fountain’s deadly properties. Jack attempts to find a ship to make his escape, only to learn that someone has been impersonating him and has begun to gather a crew! Who would do such a thing? It turns out that Jack’s ex-girlfriend Angelica (Penelope Cruz) can do a pretty good Jack impression and unwittingly recruits Jack to join the crew of Blackbeard’s ship! (Insert musical sting here). Can Jack escape the clutches of Blackbeard (Ian McShane), stop Barbossa and the Spanish from reaching the Fountain, and maybe get the girl in the end?

Unfortunately for viewers, Stranger Tides is a very weak movie overall in terms of the story and acting. After three movies you would have thought that maybe, just maybe, more than three of the previous actors might have been involved in the newest production. The powers behind this movie only chose to include Jack, Gibbs, and Barbossa, and it was such a huge error because these are not the characters that provided the heart of the movie. Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Davy Jones, and even Pintel and Ragetti (the two goofball pirates) were such rich and well conceived characters, and instead of trying to replace them with new heroes and villains that were at least on par, we got the complete opposite. This film took away all of that entertainment and introduced a few uninteresting characters that really didn’t connect with the audience on the same level.

Depp’s performance of Jack was extremely “phoned in” and lacked the charisma that made him so enjoyable in the first three releases. A majority of the time it felt as though Jack had regressed to the character from the first film and that none of the character development that he had experienced had ever taken place. Penelope Cruz did a passable job as Angelica, but the character was weak and the performance was less than memorable. Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa was also extremely disappointing and fell flat a majority of the time, which was very sad to see considering how thrilling of a villain he was in the first story. Ian McShane as Blackbeard was a solid choice but really did not come across as threatening as Davy Jones was in the prior movies. I appreciated the effort that he put into the role (one of the few redeeming things about the film).

With this being the fourth installment in the Pirates series, there wasn’t anything new and exciting. The last two movies featured a major climatic sequence (the Kracken was amazing, and the battle in the maelstrom was equally as impressive), but this movie was lacking that big spectacle of a finale. The feeling that I had while watching the film was that this wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. It was overly predictable and not anywhere as exciting as its predecessors had been. I am sure that Disney will keep pumping out Pirates movies for the foreseeable future because kids want to see them, but the part that made the first set of movies so fantastic was that it could be enjoyed by all ages. It truly had something entertaining for everyone. So when you get to the point that it feels like “been there, done that”, maybe you need to reexamine your product. I hope that the next movie returns to its roots and gets the characters back on the same entertaining path that we had followed for several years. Bring back some of the other cast or at least introduce some strong characters that can replace them in terms of likability and contributions to the story.

Special Features

• Bloopers of the Caribbean: A collection of bloopers and outtakes from the film
• LEGO Animated Shorts: Captain Jack’s Brick Tales
• Audio Commentary by Director Rob Marshall
• Disney Second Screen

The special features on this set are very limited and kinda disappointing (maybe they were trying to keep up the same standard as the movie itself) especially when compared with the previous Pirates DVDs/blu-ray releases. Seeing how this is a Disney release, which are normally jam packed with extras and features, the ball was dropped big time here.

Video quality is top notch though, as most Disney releases are with the picture being crisp and the transfer looking good on your Plasma TV even if you are just watching the DVD version. Sound is also one of the highlights for this movie with all the big explosions coming through with outstanding clarity. For those of you who want a movie to show off your sound system setup, this is the movie with which to do it!

Overall

On Stranger Tides has quite a few glaring flaws and when it comes to the movie itself and it’s very hard to care about anything that transpires within it. After the first three movies had such great characterization and moments that really got us attached to the characters and the story, this movie really has nothing of that sort and it hurts it all around. The cast phoning in their performances shows that they didn’t have much of an attachment to the movie either. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides feels completely unnecessary and that it was made just to milk the Pirates franchise for a bit more money. Here is to hoping that Pirates 5 will manage to reclaim the feel of the series since this movie sure didn’t.

ComicsOnline gives Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on DVD – 2 unnecessary plot twists out of 5.

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