The film's getting hammered by critics and longtime fans alike - and as much as I was looking forward this one and wishing for it to succeed, I have to concur that it's largely deserving of the hate.
On Stranger Tides is frustrating, because there's an awesome movie lying within somewhere. It looks great, and the action and choreography continue to be topnotch, but it's the story that takes a massive hit. The core plot is intriguing enough, but ultimately tainted by its momentum killing screenplay. This series was never one to shy away from exposition whenever it called for it, but the writing here is so verbose and overbearing, that it manages to deter at every possible opportunity. It also doesn't help that the dialogue is dry and witless, dulling a lot of the sharp character dynamics. Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio's fall from grace is a mighty steep drop indeed.
The big offender here is Depp's Jack Sparrow. Everyone seems to concur that it was a mistake to make Jack the protagonist this time around; as a trickster, he's always worked best as a supporting character, drawing his success from playing off of others. Chud.com's Nick says it best: "I think Jack Sparrow is the Han Solo character in this series, he’s great and he’s meant to brighten the proceedings whenever he’s onscreen, but you can’t build the plot around him. What made him perfect in the first film and at times in the others so magnetic was that while he was in on the action, his magic was in his reaction to it. He was playing in the margins and almost riffing on the action while the other characters did the generic stuff." The writers now saw it fit to saddle Jack with huge chunks of redundant dialogue, which is a big no-no when you're trying to preserve the nature of a character's unpredictability. Here, you could read Sparrow like an open book. Blindfolded.
The rest of the characters fare slightly better. Ian McShane looks great as Blackbeard, and while he has a couple of excellent moments to illustrate the character's cruelty, they could have done so much more to make him head-on intimidating. There's a backstory between Penélope Cruz's Angelica and Jack Sparrow, but it's a weak link when compared to the here and now game of deception that they play against one another in the film. Rush's Barbossa gets a good revenge plot, and he and Depp manage a glimpse of that old, lively spark whenever they share the screen. The subplot between Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey's Syrena and Sam Claflin's Philip Swift feels like a scaled back throwback to the Will/Elizabeth story arc, and while there could have been a few more intimate moments for them to share, I appreciated that they provided the only real heart in the film. I think the best I can say about the story is that it takes its self-contained nature into account; characters, both returning and newly introduced, all see resolution by the end. No nagging loose ends to contend with, and in that sense, yes, it does feel like a throwback to The Curse of the Black Pearl.
After the thematic powerhouses of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the score for On Stranger Tides is a muddled, lazy effort from Zimmer and the RCP boys. Entire cues are lifted wholesale from the first three films, throwing thematic relevance to the wind. Why are they even referencing Cutler Beckett's theme when there's no mention of him whatsoever? Yes, it's a stretch to have it refitted as the theme for London authorities, but the same goes for Tia Dalma/Calypso, and the Will/Elizabeth love theme from At World's End. If this was supposed to be a series reboot, the memo sure wasn't passed on to the sound producers. There is one new original theme, and it's presented as an amazing suite on the official soundtrack: Blackbeard. And while Mermaids can't claim compositional originality due to its flagrant use of the undead pirates theme and At Wit's End (and in one jarring instant, Beckett's demise from AWE), it is one of the more impressive tracks on the score, accompanying what is undoubtedly the very best sequence in the movie. The vocal production by Eric Whitacre is terrific all around, but it is surprising that the much touted collaboration with Rodrigo y Gabriela is greatly subdued as heard in the film.
It pains me to say it, but they've finally created a Pirates movie I can't be bothered to see more than once. As said, it's infuriating that On Stranger Tides seems like such a squandered opportunity; it had all the makings of an amazing pulp swashbuckling adventure, and even a fantastic story by way of Tim Powers' original novel. (Few if any elements are culled from the book.) Direction-wise, it's also missing the 'Gore' factor -- Verbinsky, that is. Gone are the quirky, edgy indulgences of the prior movies, with Rob Marshall trading in delightfully off-kilt for rigidly straight laced.
