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Cons
- Blackbeard was supposed to be the most feared pirate of all time. I did not get that feeling from him. He was scared of dying and that got in the way of him being fearful. The only scene that made him “scary” (using that loosely) was when he threatened to kill his daughter.
- The writers failed to mention how a mermaid’s tear would grant eternal life. Maybe a good reason is that mermaids are a rare bread. How Ponce de Leon’s skeleton moved when Jack touched the map is beyond me. I have no explanation for it.
- Angelica is pirate. Why would she grab the sword’s blade? That was plain silly. The other that can be taken away from that was Blackbeard’s greed for living.
Pros
- The movie focused more on Jack now that Will and Elizabeth are gone. A little bit of Dead Man’s Chest and most of At World’s End, I thought, were focused towards Will, Elizabeth, and Bootstrap.
- The mermaids were written as killers. That’s a different take than what I had imagined mermaids to be. They were at least more terrifying than Black Beard himself.
- The writers at least told us that the chalice with the tear would grant the years of life that the other person has left.
- The final setting with Angelica and Jack was beautifully picked.
The fourth chapter of the Pirates series came back with only six previous cast members, Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Kevin McNally, Jonny Rees (Lieutenant Theodore Groves), Damian O’Hare (Lt. Gillette), and Keith Richards (Captain Teague). The latter of the list had small roles, but nonetheless were in previous movies. I think this is a part of the reason why people hated this movie so much. I enjoyed it ten times more than At World’s End. I think it was best that Will and Elizabeth were not in this one
Synopsis
In this movie, Captain Sparrow is in London with Gibbs who traveled to London because he heard that Sparrow was hiring a crew which turned out to be an old lover Angelica (Penélope Cruz); she is revealed to be the daughter of Blackbeard (Ian McShane)
. Barbossa stated to Jack that he lost the Pearl to Blackbeard and many crew members had died; he later admits that he only joined the British fleet because of revenge in which he got.
The movie is tied around the ending of At World’s End. The English, Spanish, Jack, and Blackbeard are searching for the Fountain of Youth which gives us a rough time period 200 years after the death of Ponce de Leon. Now these movies are not historically accurate, but a sense of time, I find, is important. There are really only four people who are out to find the fountain, Blackbeard, Angelica, King Ferdinand (Sebastian Armesto), and King George (Richard Griffiths).
Jack is aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge and is planning a mutiny, which ends with the cook’s death, against Blackbeard. They arrive to Whitecap Bay where the mermaids are said to be and they wipe out a good chunk of his crew as well as Barbossa’s men. Jack is sent to retrieve the chalices from Ponce de Leon’s ship where he reunites with Barbossa and Gibbs, and together find the Spaniards who had beat them to Leon’s ship.
They arrive at the fountain where Blackbeard knew he was going to die by the one-legged man aka Barbossa. The Spaniards interrupt the fighting between the English and Blackbeard and destroy the fountain because they believe only God can grant eternal life. Barbossa takes the Queen Anne while Gibbs has taken the Black Pearl which is seen in a bottle, and he asked Jack why he did not drink from the chalice. Jack gives his reply which was that he did not mind he was unable to drink from it since there are more ways to live forever (i.e. being a discoverer of the Fountain of Youth).
End Credits:
We see Jack’s voodoo doll floating in the shallow water of an island that Angelica is stranded on. Not much can be said because I believe this is going to be forgotten with the fifth movie coming out. Respectively, two, four, and one have end credit scenes that do not matter or have little importance to the franchise as a whole. Three is not listed because I do consider it important, and it adds some weight to the movies.
Ratings:
8.0/10, B, 4/5 GM
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