Review - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and yes. Disney and Bruckheimer did, indeed, make a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Yeah, it's pretty much well known that, outside of the franchise's hardcore fans, most people who have enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are pretty much checked out of the series after watching At World's End. However, since the franchise was Disney's biggest moneymaker, alongside Pixar, it made sense that Disney would want to make another movie. I mean, think about it, Marvel Studios projects at the time were still being released through Paramount Pictures, Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm was still a year-and-a-half away, and the live-action remakes hadn't become a staple of the studio yet, despite 2010's Alice in Wonderland taking in over a billion at the worldwide box office. So, a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie made sense for Disney in 2011.

          So, for this Fourth entry, the story is surprisingly inspired by an existing source material, as it takes many plot elements from the Tim Powers novel On Stranger Tides. Switch out a few characters where they could to add in the likes of Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, Gibbs, and even Captain Teague, and here we have the movie. Also, Gore Verbinski does NOT return to the director's chair, as this film would be directed by Rob Marshall in his first major project for the Disney studio, following this up with such films as Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, and the recently released live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. So, let's get into this, the fourth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, On Stranger Tides.

         The movie opens with a Spanish vessel picking up a sailor adrift, and returns him to Spain, where he is brought before King Ferdinand. The rescued sailor utters the name of Ponce de Leon, and the Spanish King knows what this means: the Fountain of Youth has been located. Ferdinand sends his top man, known as the Spaniard, after it. We then cut to London, where we are led to believe that Jack Sparrow is set to face the Courts. Unfortunately, the man they have in custody is not Jack, but his best friend and loyal first mate Gibbs. The judge presiding the case, Justice Smith as he calls himself, renders a guilty verdict against Gibbs. The guilty verdict is for the crime of "being INNOCENT of being Jack Sparrow," and thus he is sentenced to life in prison in the Tower of London. 

        Of course, Justice Smith is, in fact, the REAL Jack Sparrow, and Jack reveals to Gibbs he's paid off the cabbie to take them to the docks, and the two of them will be on their way elsewhere outside of London. And, of course, Gibbs heard rumors of Jack gathering a crew to go after the Fountain of Youth, to which Jack has no knowledge. The cabbie, however, has also been bought off, having taken Jack and Gibbs to the royal palace. Jack gives Gibbs the Navigation Charts, and is taken before King George II, who believes Jack can guide an expedition to the Foundation and get to it before the Spaniard does. The King presents the Captain Jack will be working with on the expedition: Barbossa. Yeah, apparently, Barbossa lost both the Black Pearl and one of his legs, and became a Privateer in the British Royal Navy. Jack escapes, and ends up in a lengthy chase across London, ending up outside of a tavern, where he is rescued by his father Captain Teague. 

        Jack and his father sit inside for a drink, and they discuss the Fountain of Youth, the ritual that requires a pair of chalices found by Ponce de Leon, and water from the Fountain itself. A few pirates, also in the tavern, claim they're crewed up with Jack, but this turns out to be someone impersonating Jack. Whoops. Anyway, Jack and the imposter have a swordfight, and the imposter turns out to be Jack's former flame Angelica. Jack and Angelica fend off some Naval guards, and make their escape. Jack is knocked out, and Angelica and her crew take him to their ship. Meanwhile, Gibbs is brought to a cemetery by Barbossa, and Gibbs burns the Navigation Charts, having memorized the route to the Fountain of Youth, this earning his way on the voyage to the Fountain. 

        Days later, and Jack wakes up on a ship, and he befriends one of the ship's crew: a Machiavellian pirate named Scrum. And just what ship is Jack on now? The notorious ship the Queen Anne's Revenge. And, I am gonna say, the overall look of the Queen Anne's Revenge is pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, this thing looks straight up haunting, even more so than the Flying Dutchman. And, of course, the Captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge is the pirate all pirates fear: Edward Teach aka Blackbeard. Among the crew are Blackbeard's three officers, all of whom have been zombified, and Angelica, who is the First Mate and Blackbeard's daughter. Also, a prisoner is held high up on the mast, only at the behest of Angelica. This is due to the prisoner, Philip Swift, being a missionary and thus it would be wrong to kill him. An attempted mutiny one night goes awry, and Blackbeard has the cook killed...out of necessity for needing to teach a lesson by killing someone. 

        And, this is something I need to talk about for a minute, because there are things that I like and dislike about this movie's take on Blackbeard. First off, casting Ian McShane as Blackbeard was a stroke of genius, as he absolutely looked fantastic in the role, and he acted the shit out of the role, no questions asked. But, there is one down side. The filmmakers played way too heavily into the myth of the supernatural that's surrounded the legend of Blackbeard. Part of why Blackbeard was the most feared pirate in the history books was because he used scare tactics to make himself appear as supernatural, but he was anything but. He was ruthless, he was a brilliant battle strategist, but any myths of the supernatural were all legends and gossip meant to build a fearful reputation. None of it was true. Also, he did NOT wield an enchanted sword that could shrink ships and bring the rigging of a ship to life. That was made up just for this movie. 

       Speaking of shrunken ships, Angelica shows Blackbeard's collection of shrunken ships in bottles, and points to one Jack would, for sure, want to get his hands on: the Black Pearl. So, with the promise of regaining the Pearl, Jack agrees to help find the Fountain for Blackbeard, who is attempting to prolong his life and avoid a prophesized death at the hands of a "one-legged man." So, it's a three-way race between Blackbeard and his pirates, Barbossa and his crew, and the Spaniard and his crew. The destination? Whitecap Bay. A place feared by sailors, pirates or otherwise, for its main inhabitants: mermaids. Now, unlike most folklore that presents mermaids as peaceful, serene, and beautiful, the mermaids in this movie are, at least, beautiful. However, they're also vicious, deadly, and more in line with sirens than mermaids. However, I will say that the work done designing the mermaid tails was absolutely fantastic, so great job there. 

         Now, it's just by sheer luck that Philip is able to find the only mermaid who isn't as vicious as her sister mermaids. This is Syrena, who is taken by Blackbeard and the pirates, as a single mermaid tear is needed for the ritual of the Fountain of Youth. After heading further into the island interior, Jack is sent after the silver chalices of Ponce de Leon. While that's going on, Blackbeard, Angelica, and the rest of the pirates head to the cave where the Fountain is hidden. Along the way, Philip and Syrena form a bond with each other. Yeah, these two are essentially filling the roles of Will and Elizabeth for this movie. And, I will give props where it's due, as both Sam Claflin and Astrid Berges-Frisbey were fantastic as Philip and Syrena. At least, for the context of this movie. 

        As for Jack, he meets up with Barbossa and Gibbs, and Jack and Barbossa have a heart-to-heart, where Barbossa reveals his true purpose for joining the Royal Navy as a privateer and agreeing to the expedition to the Fountain of Youth: revenge. Specifically, revenge against Blackbeard for costing Barbossa both his leg AND the Pearl. So, it seems that the one-legged man that was prophesized to kill Blackbeard was Barbossa. Cool. Anyway, Jack and Barbossa claim the chalices from the Spanish, and Jack and Gibbs catch up with Blackbeard's party. Jack then gives Gibbs his compass, which points him to something both he and Jack want. And, Blackbeard collects a single tear from Syrena, so the ritual can happen.

         Using the chalices, Jack opens the way to the Fountain. And just as the ritual is to take place, Barbossa and the British arrive to fight Blackbeard and the pirates, and the Spaniard and his men arrive to destroy the Fountain, seeing as he believes the Fountain is unholy and such power "only belongs to God." A massive fight breaks out, and the Fountain is almost completely destroyed. Jack is able to get a few drops of water from it into the chalices. And just so, as both Blackbeard and Angelica have been poisoned by Barbossa's sword...laced with the poison of poisonous frogs. Jack gives them the chalices, and Angelica gets the one with Syrena's tear, thus gains all the years of life from her father, and Blackbeard is dead. Syrena and Philip live a life together, and Angelica is marooned on an island with a single-shot pistol. Excuse me-- HA! HAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHA! 

         I'm sorry, but that's just ironic. Jack, who himself was marooned twice by Barbossa with only a single-shot pistol, maroons Angelica the same way he was marooned. I'm sorry, but that's hilarious. After several attempts to reason with Jack, Angelica is still left on the island, wastes her one shot, and shouts at Jack in Spanish. As for Barbossa, he returns to his old life as a pirate, becoming the new Captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Jack meets up with Gibbs, who collected Blackbeard's shrunken ship collection, showing the Pearl first. Jack and Gibbs ponder over why Jack didn't drink from the Fountain himself, and Jack remarks how the Fountain tests people, and ends the movie by telling Gibbs "it's a pirate's life for me. Savvy?" 

         Okay, so what I enjoyed most about this movie is that it really doesn't connect to the first three. So, anyone unfamiliar with the Pirates of the Caribbean films up to this point can easily watch this one and check out the original three another time. Also,.the fact that it takes story inspiration means that it is, indeed, possible for the series to take inspiration from sources other than the Disney Parks ride the films were based on. Hell, in one of the spin-off novels, a few pirate captains even made an indirect reference to the story of Peter Pan by talking about Captain James Hook. So, taking cues from Tim Powers' novel shows me that we can, one day, see the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise look at pre-existing source material or historical events and tell stories for this franchise. 

         Now, I've already talked about how I enjoyed Ian McShane as Blackbeard, Sam Claflin as Philip, and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Syrena, but what about the other cast members? Well, obviously the returning actors of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, Kevin R. McNally as Gibbs, and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa were all fantastic. And, both Barbossa and Gibbs had motives that made sense. For Barbossa, his motivation is a personal one. Blackbeard stole his ship and cost him a leg, so he desires revenge. To get his chance, he accepts the Royal Pardon, becomes a privateer in the British Royal Navy, and uses it to go after Blackbeard. As for Gibbs, his motivation is to survive. After all, Jack used a disguise to render him a sentence of life in prison, which Barbossa undercut by threatening to hang him, but Gibbs had the Navigation Charts committed to memory, thus giving him purpose for Barbossa. Jack's motivation? I have no clue, to be honest. Maybe to save Angelica from the thumb of Blackbeard? I dunno. 

          But for the new cast members, I really enjoyed Penelope Cruz as Angelica. She definitely fits the role of a femme fatale, and she definitely plays Jack like a fiddle as the movie goes on, and I love it. Stephen Graham, who takes on the role of Scrum, is a really great source of comic relief in this movie, essentially filling the roles Pintel and Ragetti had in the first three movies. I also liked the appearances of the likes of Richard Griffiths as King George, Roger Allam and Anton Lesser as the King's ministers. Heck, I was even surprised by a brief cameo made by Judi Dench as a British noblewoman. Oh, and Keith Richards' return as Captain Teague was definitely a lot of fun. 

         The music in this movie was fantastic. Hans Zimmer returns to score for what would be his final film in the franchise, and he partners up with Mexican guitarist duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, and the mix of the two is absolutely fantastic. And, I also enjoyed the performance of Gemma Ward, who portrays the mermaid Tamara, with the song "Jolly Sailor Bold." Not quite as iconic as "Yo Ho! (A Pirate's Life for Me)" or as memorable as "Hoist the Colours," but still a fantastic song for this franchise. 

         Unfortunately, I felt that there was really something lacking in this movie, and that was the Naval combat we saw in the first three movies. Yes, there are ships in the movie, but they don't really blast at each other the way we saw in the first three movies. The combat in this movie is pretty much just swordplay, and a lot of it is landlocked. This kinda sucks, because I like seeing the naval combat in these movies, that's what makes me a fan of them. 

         Overall, I enjoyed this movie when I saw it. Not nearly as much as the other three, but I still enjoyed it when it came out twelve years ago. So, I'm giving Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides a rating of 4/5. Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and we'll be wrapping up the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise tomorrow when we take a look at 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales.