Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) by Katie B — 11 May 2017

This is obviously the weakest of the series. It does have a lot of the elements right, but the story doesn't feel anywhere near as interesting as the other movies. I do appreciate that it continued with the story set up by the ending of At World's End, and it's still written by the same writers, but this time they chose to adapt an existing story to fit into the Pirates of the Caribbean world, and I don't think that was the best choice. While there's still a bit of supernatural elements, they felt out of place as some of your typical pirate era supernatural concepts, rather than the fresh ideas brought in the previous movies. Ian McShane was a decent Blackbeard, although I would have preferred more menace and less reliance on the use of magical powers to intimidate, which I think weakened the character. Also lacking in this movie is a large portion of the existing cast. The movie still has a few returning characters, but the returning cast pales in comparison to the previous movies, which does hurt it. The acting, visuals and score remain top notch however, and there's some solid Pirates action in there as well, although not to the same level as the other films. I do think it's worth watching if you haven't seen it, and it's still a fun Pirates movie, but I almost consider it a side story, and in that sense I hope Dead Men Tell No Tales improves upon that.

Personal Grade: S.

Technical Score: 72%.