So while this picture is called “On Stranger Tides,” it is by far the least strange of all the “Pirates” episodes so far, with none of the cartoonish exuberance or creepy-crawly effects that made its predecessors intermittently delightful.Ī lot of the original cast members and special guest stars have fallen away - Keith Richards shows up for a minute or two, less thrillingly than the last time - but the guys up front are still in good shape, and a few more old-timers have been recruited from elsewhere to add their seasoned chops. Gore Verbinski, who directed the first three installments with wanton energy, rococo visual flair and a flagrant disregard for narrative coherence, has been replaced by Rob Marshall, who specializes in turning well-loved pieces of popular art (“ Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “ Nine“) into tedious, literal-minded prestige movies. Not that “On Stranger Tides” is especially inventive. Why would the Walt Disney Company, which distributes these movies, and Jerry Bruckheimer, who produces them, ever want to leave well enough alone? In Hollywood, gratuitous excess - not necessity - is the mother of invention. Whether the effort was absolutely necessary is both an obvious and a naïve question.
This film, the fourth in a series that made its improbable and profitable leap from the theme park to the multiplex eight summers ago, represents an attempt to rejuvenate a flagging franchise. It is fitting that what passes for a plot in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” involves a search for the fountain of youth.
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