Chick 1 says:

The fourth installment of the Pirates franchise has Johnny Depp & a few minor characters returning while picking up a lot of new players.  Have they been able to capture the magic again?

The Basics: Let’s start with a rundown of the previous Pirates movies.  I really enjoyed the original, The Curse of the Black Pearl.  Sure, it had some script/pacing problems in the third act.  But at its heart it was a pretty good mindless action movie.  Then adding Johnny Depp’s serendipitous turn as Jack Sparrow (that’s Captain Jack Sparrow) turned it into a blockbuster and a blast!  Then came the (sigh) expected sequels following an unexpected hit.  Here the problems skirting around the edge came front and center.  Yes, there were some good fights, like the three-way in Dead Man’s Chest.  And naming Elizabeth the Pirate King was a stroke of brilliance.  But it was too much; bogged down with too many good ideas that should have been edited out.   Now we have the fourth chapter (a fifth one has been filmed) following Sparrow’s search for the Fountain of Youth.

What I Liked:  Of course, Depp is enjoyable to watch (& easy on the eyes too).  The writers have always had fun populating the Pirate world with some really great layered characters so there are lots of interesting performances, including an extremely brief cameo by Judi Dench.  (But what isn’t made better by adding a dash of Dench?  She’s only on screen for like 30 seconds.  She’s 76 years old & she showed up on set, put on a frilly costume, Johnny Depp crawled all over her, she collected a hefty paycheck, & went home.  Hmm…I think I have a new goal for my retirement years.) The casting of Ian McShane as Blackbeard was inspired.   The sets and costumes are pretty and there’s a secondary love story that was predictable but I enjoyed it.

What I Didn’t Like:  I hate to say this about a Johnny Depp movie but I was bored during the first half.  I kept waiting for things to “get going”.  Things perked up a bit more the second half but there were still some dull spots.  I appreciate that the filmmakers are trying to expand Sparrow’s character with a love story while keeping true to the things we love about him.  That’s a rather large challenge and they’re not quite up to it.  I give them points for not playing things straight.  This is no rom-com or traditional romance and on paper, casting Penelope Cruz was wise.  But although she has plenty to do, her character never feels completely fleshed out.  There’s not a lot of spark between Cruz and Depp, both fine actors;  it’s like they’re acting in two different movies.

Bottom Line:  In the end, this Pirate installment exemplifies what has troubled the series from the beginning; while there are loads of great actors, interesting characters, stunning set pieces, sword fights, and special effects, no one has been able to distill the story down to its basic essence.  And that makes it a big bloody mess…and not a very exciting one.