Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides gets a Super Bowl ad, another mediocre tease for an unnecessary franchise continuation..

I'm not going to do a rundown of every single Super Bowl movie ad, primarily because there were just too many of them. I'm trying not to walk into this with my nose held, but this just doesn't look like very much fun. It lacks the surprise of the first picture, and the dense plotting of the underrated sequels. What it contains is forced whimsy and the unnatural sight of supporting foil Jack Sparrow somehow becoming a leading man. At least we get a reveal of how 'not Will Turner' and 'not Elizabeth Swan' fit into the picture. I just don't get why everyone thinks that the director of Memoirs Of a Geisha and Nine is somehow going to revamp the franchise. I'll be the first to eat crow if it's at least as good as the third picture, but as always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson