Alas, my timbers remain unshivered. While it's nice that the film seems to be returning to the lighter tone of Curse of the Black Pearl, the film is desperately missing interesting leading characters. I've said this a thousand times, but Jack Sparrow is not a leading man, he's a colorful supporting character. The dramatic weight of the original trilogy fell on Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, which allowed Johnny Depp to do his devil-may-care shtick without harming the seriousness of the overriding narrative. Alas, since Sparrow is in the lead this time around, why should we care about the outcome if he so obviously doesn't? The obvious comparison is a Shrek sequel which makes Donkey the lead character and writes Shrek and Fiona out of the story. Penelope Cruz seems entirely defined by her romantic entanglements with Sparrow, although making Geoffrey Rush's Barbosa into a servant of the British army is an interesting idea. There seems to be a token young couple in danger, glimpsed at 1:23 and 1:59 (Sam Cleflin and Gemma Ward, I believe), but I frankly have no idea who they are in terms of the story. Some of the action beats are neat (1:14 and 1:38), but this feels like a completely unnecessary cash grab. This one comes out May 20th, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. As always, we'll see...
Scott Mendelson
I'm a little upset. Pirate sequels were unwatchable.
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