If you've been wondering whether or not the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is worth your money, it is.
When I found out they were doing a fourth movie, I bemoaned the waste of hours and dollars I was sure it would be. I had expectations of the lowest kind upon entering the cinema, especially after seeing several poor reviews. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
It's fantastic!
A lot of the poor reviews, I think, are coming from film critics who are convinced the only movies worth their time are artsy, pretentious literary pieces. And while those can be interesting, there's nothing wrong with a bit of straight up genre work - in this case, the magical pirates genre. Yes, that's a genre now.
Where it stands up:
One of the major reasons I was worried about a new Pirates movie is of course that it wasn't going to include Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann. Neither of them have quite the character power that Jack Sparrow does, but Will is the main character of the first trilogy, even if Jack gets a bit more air time. So there's a problem right there to be dealt with - who is going to step up and carry the new series?
An excellent decision has been made here not to "replace" Will and Elizabeth. There are no characters in the movie that make you think "Ah, this is the new Will" (although there's one who, but for the fact it would mean this film is set seventeen years after the third one, I would bet is their son). Instead, Jack steps up to the plate of being the main character. For the first time audiences get to see the world through Jack's perception, and the story follows him more or less from start to finish, with only minimal scenes outside his perspective.
My second major concern was that Angelica (Penelope Cruz), who plays a former flame of Jack's, turned pirate, would be nothing but a ball of crummy cliche's taped together to fill a void in the plot, and devoid of any real life. I'm pleased to announce this is not so - Angelica is at least a partially realised character, with her own motives and thoughts, and a rather entertaining match for Jack. She's not without a bit of cliche - mostly in her fiery latin blood and intensely Spanish accent which none of the other Spanish characters have - but on the whole is rather pleasing (Oh, also, all the Spanish characters speak English. Even when speaking to other Spanish characters. No matter how many movies it happens in, this will always bother me).
My third concern was that without Gore Verbinski the series would begin to tank, that we'd lose the magic. But under new director Rob Marshall the series still shines, and even better, the pacing problems of At World's End have been solved. Fans who enjoyed Curse of the Black Pearl but were dissapointed with the next two films will greatly enjoy this. It's a return to a good old fashioned stand alone fantasy adventure genre pick, just as lovable as any of the other films in the series.
The acting here is of top notch. Johnny Depp gives another fantastic performance as Jack Sparrow, and Kevin McNally as faithful sidekick Joshamme Gibbs. The greatest award has to go to Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa. If this entire film was just 137 minutes of Rush laughing and saying things with close-ups of his face, I would still have gone to see it. Twice.
(spoilers) The plot is well structured, and complex without being convoluted. The entire "Is Jack a good guy? Or is he not?" plot arc that we've had to sit through three times now has finally been done away with. Instead we have a great piece of story telling that not only includes a hero, Jack, and a villain, Blackbeard, but a couple of third parties who make for a less linear plot and keep us guessing. Barbossa returns as a privateer under King George II's employ, but is clearly out for his ends and his ends alone, and the Spanish have their own interest in the events taking place.
Two points of interest here - the first is that the film is once again strongly revolving around the characters needing to use some combination of supernatural items to acheive an end. In the first film we had the medallions that all needed to be returned to the chest, and in the second and third there was the dead man's chest and the key that went with it, along with items like Norrington's sword and the knife Will recieves from his father. (spoilers) These are replaced by the silver chalices and mermaids tear, along with the Fountain of Youth itself. It's interesting, if nothing else, how effectively this plot device is used.
The second is that two of Barbossa's subservient officers are recurring characters from the previous films. You'll remember Gilette as Norrington's main henchman - unfortunately he hasn't gone on to be a razor blade manufacturer. There is also Groves, who I don't know is referred to by name in earlier films, but he's the one who says "That's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen", "Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?" and shouts repeatedly at Beckett to give orders in the climax of At World's End before abandoning ship. You've got to wonder at the insane series of coincidences that have allowed both to not only survive the events of the past three movies but to wind up in the same place, once again interacting with Jack and Barbossa.
Hans Zimmer's music is fantastic. He uses the classic Pirates' themes and changes them around enough to make them new and exciting, but not so much as to alienate them from the past films. The introduction of a Spanish theme to the music is simply brilliant.
Where it falls down:
There are only a few little flaws here.
Although the plot is mostly airtight, there are a few little issues. The characters of the Spaniards are never really developed, at all, and their motives are unclear until much later in the film. At that point, their motives seem outlandish and ridiculous, and a lot of their past actions, in retrospect, don't make any sense. For example, (spoilers) they are the first to get the silver chalices needed for the Fountain of Youth, but it's later revealed they have no intent to use the fountain, only to destroy it - including the chalices. Despite this, hours or even days after recovering the chalices, they still carry them with them, and are even polishing them. There is also a case where one character rushes off to save another... several mintues before that character was in danger.
There is also, perhaps, an overabundance of magical elements in the film. Blackbeard can control his ship, and other ships, with his sword - which begs the question of why he needs a crew, seeing as he despises all of them - and (rather like Tia Dalma) also practices voodoo magic, creating a little doll of Jack which he routinely tortures, and turning his ship's officers into zombies. The first two at least have some plot relevance, but the zombies are just a bit too much. If anything they are an excuse not to make the ship's officers into fully-fleged characters. (spoilers) One of them does have some sort of prophetic ability and tells Blackbeard he will be killed by a one legged man, which sets up his reason for travelling to the Fountain of Youth, but all in all they could easily have been cut out. Why can't Blackbeard just travel there because he wants to? That would be better, even, because the prophecy does deal something of a blow to the film's climax.
Also, there are vampire mermaids who are apparently also Spiderman.
Overall:
These are only minor flaws in an otherwise fantastic film. It's not perfect, of course not, but it's still blood brilliant. Make sure to stay throughout the credit's to catch the final, game-changing post credits scene that is a trademark of the franchise, then join me in waiting for 5 to come out.
9/10.
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