porntrooper
Posts: 2497
Joined: 6/9/2006
From: Sheffield
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Firstly, I'm gunna have a moan about the 3D. Terrible.
I beleive this was shot on 3D, rather than being a conversion and I can't say that it ever really shows. It's never used to add any depth to any of the shots and it really feels like a wasted opportunity, I was expecting some of the sweeping shots of ships and jungle to look amazing, but it looked flat, well it looked 2D. I still don't think anyone has pulled off 3D like cameron did with Avatar, at least that did add some depth. 3D football looks much better than this multi million dollar, purpose shot 3D blockbuster! That being said, the 3D in the trailers for Cars 2 and Transformers 3 looked brilliant, particularly T3. Some shots of the spaceship interior during that teaser looked awesome and give me real hope for Prometheus in 3D.
Anyway, about the film. One of cinema's biggest missed opportunities? Quite possibly. The film itself isn't bad, as such. It's pretty well acted, well shot (most of the time), has a decent (if overly familiar) score and it pleasantly reigns in CGI excess. However, what the film is, is dull. It's muddled and unclear and never really seems to get any sense of adventure going.
The plot feels largely irrelevant. Okay, they're searching for the Fountain of Youth for a particular reason, but it never feels like the stakes are very high, it never feels like Blackbeard is a real threat or villian, he's simply a (slightly) supernatural pirate. One that never really seems to suggest a threat once he gets to the Fountain. He is never on par with Barbossa or Davey Jones from the previous movies, that's not to say McShane is poor in the role, he isn't, but he is given so little to work with. Blackbeard can raise the dead and command his ship using some unexplained supernatural powers, which is all fine and good in the POTC universe, but it is never really explained. However, with Davey Jones and Barbossa thier curses and powers were given more backstory, making it all feel much more natural. Here it feels like the writers wanted to have Blackbeard as a villian and had to work in some supernatural power, and the best they could muster was to work in some exposition about having his head cut off....or something.
Barbossa is another waste, another character shoehorned in to give link to the previous movies. It wasn't needed and it only serves to remind us of how much better he was in previous movies. Again, he's well played by the always awesome Rush, but he's wasted. Which bring s me to....
Jack Sparrow. Despite being in almost every scene, he feels very much a passenger in the vehicle he should be driving. He never seems to be quite the enterprising rascal from previous films and Depp, although good for 90% of the movie, occasionally slips and the character feels tired. In many ways Sparrow in this fourth Pirates movie reminds me of Dr Jones in the fourth Indy movie. He should be leading from the front, driving the race/chase to the prize, enterprising and smart, making it up as he goes but with that charm and style that make it look effortless. Both characters in both fourth franchise movies also seem to just be leading the bad guys to their destination, rather than trying to beat them to it. Even during the finale Jack feels very much out of the loop. With a character as good as Sparrow, much more could've been done. Still there are moments of genius from the man, in particular I quite enjoyed his cocunut tree/bungee escape manouvre. One thing that doesn't help Jack? Direction.
Although for the most part Pirates 4 is well shot and directed, when it comes to the staging of action set pieces, Rob Marshall really drops the ball. The opening London escape feels horribly staged and stiff and the carriage chase should feel fast and energetic, but is instead slow and cumbersome. Jack looks slow and is if he is very much responding to the direction of an off screen instructer "not turn Jack, step left, now right, jump up". It never feels like the fluid slapstick action Jack finds himself in in the previous movies. A pub barrell room swordfight feels so choreographed that it makes Black Pearls jerky duel between Turner and Sparrow look impressive. Things do improve as the film moves on, the aforementioned cocunut/bungee scene feels a little more like the Jack Sparrow of old, but it still doesnt reach the brilliant heights of the Barbossa/Sparrow Skeleton duel or the Big Wheel of Dead Mans Chest. The highlight of the movie is probably the mermaid attack, it's well staged and feels like something from the previous movies, but even this is reduced in quality due to the dark lighting, not helped by the added feel of very low contrast from the 3D glasses.
Zimmers score is good, I guess, but I didn't notice any new cues or themes at all, especially for Blackbeard who has no memorable villian theme to mention.
It sounds like I hated it, i didnt, I just thought it was very, very average. A pleasant enough way to kill two hours, but given the quality of Black Pearl and Dead Mans Chest, this feels like huge missed opportunity. That said, when the movie was ending (POSSIBLE SPOILER) and Barbossa sets sail, with Jack and Gibbs back in possesion of the Pearl and with thoughts of what they could do next, I'd be very interested in having Pirates 5. I still think there is one more great Jack Sparrow movie to be had, just give it better writers and a better director.
< Message edited by porntrooper -- 20/5/2011 8:57:50 AM >
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RE: Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - 
Sounds like the most likely answer!
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