In this second part of my review-series, I'm gonna talk about PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, the fourth 'Pirates' movie.
Watch the official trailer to 'PotC 4' again at the beginnning and: watch it in HD!
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides trailer
Before everything else, let me tell you some background details to 'Pirates 4'. The producers made some changes. So a big part of the cast is not there anymore, the biggest examples are Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, they won't reprise their roles as Will and Elizabeth.
But on the directors chair there's a little change too. Instead of Gore Verbinski, who directed 'Pirates 1-3', Rob Marshall [Chicago] directed this movie. And these are just some changes in crew and cast.
But lets start with the main review:
If you don't want to know anything about the story, please skip this part:
**Spoiler Alert**
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Hidden content:
**Spoiler End**
Let me tell you something about the cast. Johnny Depp reprises his role as Jack Sparrow and does his job well. Without him there would not be a fourth Pirates movie and they never would have been so successfull. So it's always awesome to see him and only the fact that he's back again makes it worth to watch this movie.
But it's not only Johnny Depp. Ian McShane as Blackbeard is good, but not impressive, Penelope Cruz is hot, ye, I had to say this, because it's true! Well, she's acting good, too. All in all an avarage cast, except for Johnny Depp and... Geoffrey Rush. I really liked it to hear that he was back in cast again, because I really liked his character, Barbossa, and the performance of the actor. Also we get a nice plot for Barbossa, but I won't tell too much. Watch it yourself!
Dariusz Wolski returns as Director of Photography with a new challenge: 3D! Ye, you can watch 'Pirates 4' in 3D, first time Johnny Depp in 3D! Now the question: Was it awesome?
It was ok, not mind-blowing, like 'Avatar' was end of 2009, but neither useless 3D like 'Alice in Wonderland'. That was no 3D-in-your-face, but you can definitley enjoy the depth of the real sharpen digital pictures. So you could say Dariusz Woksi managed the challenge and did ok. All in all the look of this 'Pirates' was really well and beautifully photographed, well done Mr. Wolski, but if you want to watch it, you can do it in 2D, too. There's no big difference.
Let's continue with the score. Hans Zimmer [Inception] did the score again, as for Pirates 1-3 and I think, you've nothing to say to his work, just listen to some music from him [I recommend you: Inception soundtrack, The Lion King soundtrack or The Dark Knight soundtrack]. Awesome! He's the best composer ever! True that!
But now a piece of the 'Pirates 4' soundtrack:
Mermaids - Hans Zimmer
The effect of this score is awesome, like always with his music. This is a score written for cinema !
The visual effects are not that enormous scale like the previous movies, because the story doesn't need it. The visual effect departement did their job well, that's everything what counts.
Linear storyline, a great Depp and Rush, an avarage cast, good cinematography, good score from Hans Zimmer, like always!
But Pirates 4 has a big problem as well. It doesn't seem to fit to the other movies. It's more a standalone-movie like Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl was. Still 'Pirates 4' is far better than 2 and 3, but there's something that is missing, like I said before.
So do I have motivation for another fifth movie of the 'Pirates' saga?
Sure! As long as Johnny Depp's still reprising his role as Jack Sparrow!
The movie entertained me and that should be reason for watching it.
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Shape