Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides review KINDA SPOILER FREE

He was absolutely an EVIL, EVIL pirate. When given a chance to redeem himself and save his daughter, he took about 1.2 seconds to make the choice. There's no softness there, nor was there any intent for anyone to think there was. I mean Darth Vader probably killed millions (or billions) of people (and wookies), but when given the chance for redemption he tossed the real bad guy down the electric toilet and saved his son out of whatever of his soul was left. Blackbeard......nope.
 
Of course he lied to his daughter about the pistols. He's not stupid, just evil. He wouldn't have told her that he was gambling with her life.
 
So was he a bad person, yes...was he an "Evil" person, not by a long shot
Great intro...

Badass ship...

Cool theme music...

But beyond that, fairly hum-drum. Does he really strike you as someone Jack or Barbosa would be afraid of (The Pirate All Pirates Fear)?

I don't recall - did he even wax anybody...? Maybe some no-name back-ground fodder crew members.

Hell, even Captain Teague is two-for-two for appearances and murders.
 
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Does anyone remember the cook getting fried? He allowed him the ability to escape but than he fried him with fireballs from Hades....not once but twice!!!

When he yelled, "Again!" that was pure evil. Supposedly the cook was going to be retrieved and added to the crew as a zombie but that was stricken from the actual movie.
 
Does anyone remember the cook getting fried? He allowed him the ability to escape but than he fried him with fireballs from Hades....not once but twice!!!

When he yelled, "Again!" that was pure evil. Supposedly the cook was going to be retrieved and added to the crew as a zombie but that was stricken from the actual movie.


Yes, he only "ordered" 1 person to be killed, that doesnt classify him as being "evil".. Hell, the spanish conquistidor team racked up more kills than Blackbeard did, so I guess they were evil as well
 
Does anyone remember the cook getting fried? He allowed him the ability to escape but than he fried him with fireballs from Hades....not once but twice!!!

When he yelled, "Again!" that was pure evil. Supposedly the cook was going to be retrieved and added to the crew as a zombie but that was stricken from the actual movie.

Ah yes! Touche'! ;)
 
Just saw the movie in glorious 2D. The costuming, sets, and other visuals were awesome. Top notch as I would expect coming from the other Pirates movies. I thought that the actual story and character development wasn't very strong. I don't want to get to specific just in case some people haven't seen it but I felt like there were quite a few parts that could have been left out because they really didn't mean anything or take the story anywhere. I felt like Black Beard was under-developed and lacked any sort of depth or dimension. They kept on having to tell us how evil and feared Black Beard was instead of letting the audience come to that conclusion through his actions on screen. Just my opinion of course. :)
 
I seem to be in the minority. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first three.

penelope cruz looked like a dude and every line from her mouth sounded like she was reading it off a card. there was no plot significance to the 'zombies' (it seemed like they were only there to parallel the supernatural crew(s) from the first three movies); there was no plot signifigance to blackbeard's sword/ship (it was only there to parallel the supernatural ship(s) of the first three movies).

almost as if.. somebody made a checklist of successful 'elements' from the first three, and then threw these elements into a pot and simmered them, without considering what actually made the first three successful. (kinda like jaws2).

supernatural crew (check!); supernatural ship (check!); a villain which 'all pirates fear' (check!); keith richards' cameo (check!);....

...it all seemed a bit contrived, for some reason. like they were following a recipe, by substituting one ingredient for another.

--> it had all the "ingredients" of a good POTC movie. and yet, something was missing. (even Keith seemed a little too... sober.)



I'll need to see it again, before I pass judgement. [/waiting on the blu-ray]
 
My son and I saw it (he's 10) and we both thought it was bad. Jack's antics seemed forced and not plot driven at all. Worse of the 4 movies and it had so much potential given the characters available.
 
here was no plot significance to the 'zombies' (it seemed like they were only there to parallel the supernatural crew(s) from the first three movies);

I wonder why they even brought that into the movie. We never see Black Beard zombify anyone. There are the two zombies on the ship but they didn't play a significant role except for act like apes. The story sucked. Bottom line.
 
Cobalt60, I think you are absolutely right. As a big fan of the series, I found this one missing the mark. I agree with all you wrote here.

To my wife and me, we thought the film should have followed the successful pattern of the others. In them the movies were mainly the love story between Will Turner and Elizabeth woven into the pirates storyline.

We kept saying that this new film should have been about the love story between Phillip and Syrena woven into the pirate story. There's where the film had some depth, substance and interest. Those characters should have been introduced early in the film, then should have been developed and resolved with much more attention than they were given. Instead they were reduced to such a minimal plot element when they should have been the movie. The actors in those roles were well cast and had excellent chemistry. Such a missed opportunity! It should have been them at the end after the credits rolled!

This film went in a lot of directions. In the end, it just seemed that the director didn't know which storyline he wanted to focus on, thus ended up not doing any storyline justice. Oh, it had a lot of very enjoyable 'moments,' which is what was this film's saving grace, but overall it had very little cohesion. This film had a lot of potential, but did not reach it.
 
Also felt cheated...

I KNOW they trimmed the budget considerably. I was optimistic that would translate into it not being a bloated mess like AWE.

But...

When I go to a pirate movie I want to spend time on the water!

And we got very little of that. Very little.

I also know that filming on water is an expensive pain in the ass. But the ships played a minimal role (or at least got minimal screen time).

And no battles at sea (also very costly to film). The script even - in a pretty ham-fisted manner - wrote its way out of a sea battle... :rolleyes
 
You bring up a great point. Just like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, or the Enterprise in Trek, the Black Pearl and other ships are just as much characters as the actors. I kept wanting to see the Pearl in action.
 
Yeah... Instead The Black Pearl was scripted out (ship-in-a-bottle) so they could recycle it as the re-dressed Queen Anne's Revenge.

Cheaper to write it out of the script than to build an entirely new ship.

Which leaves the question: Will we ever see the Pearl again?

If Barbosa maintains command of the QAR (and then if the re-dressed Pearl is used again as the QAR), how will they bring the Pearl back? Would the film makers create another Pearl? Would they undo the re-dress, restoring it as the Pearl, and hence forego the QAR?

They've sort of painted themselves into a corner with regard to the ships.

Or in otherwords...

Personally, I'd love to see a fifth film with Barbosa at the helm of the Queen Anne's Revenge (maybe with Pintel and Rigetti back), either sparring with, or working with, Jack at the helm of the Pearl.

Imagine both ships on screen at the same time...

But logistically, how the hell would they do it since "both ships" are actually the same ship?

Ah the irony - the Pearl is lost and stands to be resurrected; in both the fictional world, and the real world!
 
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I can just see it––to get both ships in the same movie––actors on an entirely green set with CG ships and ocean to be added in post.
 
With the Blu-Ray/DVD release of POTC 4 just days away, are there any news on (a) new POTC movie(s)? I guess with OST's 1 billion plus at the BO Disney will push hard to get more sequels made asap.
 
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