|
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
| Released |
18 May 2011 |
| Director |
Rob Marshall |
Starring
|
Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush, Kevin R. McNally, Sam Claflin, Astrid Berges-Frisbey |
| Writer(s) |
Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio |
| Producer(s) |
Jerry Bruckheimer |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
136 minutes |
| Genre |
Action, adventure, fantasy |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Low tide.
Remember when Johnny Depp was good? When every performance he did wasn’t a tiresome Stars in their Eyes tribute? Notwithstanding The Tourist (which is perhaps best forgotten) Depp’s recent work has seen him careen around pop cultural history to channel Michael Jackson (Willy Wonka), David Bowie (Sweeney Todd) and Hunter S. Thompson (too many to mention). Now he’s back with his Keith Richards schtick in the fourth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, subtitled On Stranger Tides.
Every time I see Depp donning the guyliner to play Captain Jack Sparrow, I can’t help but feel it’s a tremendous waste of his talent but the slurring, stumbling Sparrow has struck a chord with cinema audiences. On Stranger Tides has finally capitalised properly on this popularity, dispensing with the wet romance of Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom and making it all about Jack. Gore Verbinski has also jumped ship to be replaced by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine). Marhsall, like Verbinski is not a director known for his restraint but even at a hefty 137 minutes, the film feels less bloated than its predecessors thanks to the new streamlined cast.
The story sees three ships competing to be the first to set foot in the mythical Fountain of Youth. One is captained by Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) under commission from the King of England, another is from the Spanish court and the third is Blackbeard’s (Ian McShane). Jack has some romantic history with Blackbeard’s first mate Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and is tricked onto the ship to lead them to the Fountain.
And it’s not terribly interesting. There are villains that aren’t menacing, monsters that aren’t frightening and a cast of pirates who are remarkably well-behaved. Even Sparrow seems to have dropped the “anti” from the front of his “hero.” I’ve seen worse behaviour on a boating holiday on the Shannon. Of course, these are movies made for a family audience but is it too much to expect the villain to be villainous, the monsters monstrous and the pirates...a bit more piratey? McShane’s Blackbeard is distinctly disappointing- essentially a watered down version of Al Swearengen from Deadwood. Elsewhere there are some distinctly underwhelming man-eating mermaids- one of whom even goes all soft and falls in love!
The terrible 3D effects -the worst I’ve seen- don’t help matters. But then the abundance of Depp seems to be the main attraction here so if that’s what you’re after you’ll not be disappointed.
-
Linda O’Brien |
