Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Grading

[marillion]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

^^ Totally! Me too!

Saw it in 2D yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit. I did feel some of the typical Captain Jack comedy moments were a bit forced, but that may just be because that's all we've seen in the trailers and commercials.

I really enjoyed parts 2 and 3, but like most, I feel they were way overblown. This felt nice and tight for the most part.. The only real letdown was the post-credit scene, which I won't give away.

On edit... I've just been thinking a bit more (watch out!) about the characters and I will have to say that this movie missed something by not having characters such as those portrayed by Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly. Depp was great, of course, and Penelope Cruz was very good in her role.... But something was missing.. the Preacher and mermaid characters just didn't cut it for me...

 

[Nociod]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

It wasn't a bad movie, but I was bored. Gave it an "average". (I liked the first movie, the others sucked. This was better than the other movies)

Couldn't get tickets to the 2d version, so had to go with the 3d. What a waste. I hate 3d, maybe that's why I wasn't too impressed?, only really noticed it in some scenes like the sword popping out, the bits of paper flying in the air etc... I honestly hope this is the last 3d film I'll ever watch.

 

[Dream]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I've just been thinking a bit more (watch out!) about the characters and I will have to say that this movie missed something by not having characters such as those portrayed by Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly. Depp was great, of course, and Penelope Cruz was very good in her role.... But something was missing.. the Preacher and mermaid characters just didn't cut it for me...

I'm guessing Elizabeth was raising her baby, while Will was busy with his new job during the time of this movie. It would have been really nice to have either of them make a cameo though.

 

[timothy]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

planning on seeing it this wensday do I have to stay to the end of the credits as was the case in the last movie?

Yes, there is a scene at the end of the credits.

thanks for that do you think this is a start of a second trilogy?

 

[Procutus]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I thought the trailers were pretty good.

Same here. In fact, I thought they looked far better than the one for AWE, and even that I thought did a reasonable job of pimping the film.

I've found with the PotC series that folks either like it a lot, or they don't. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of grey area, IMO.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I have not yet seen this film. I plan on it.

I like Sparrow quite a bit.. Depp gave an interesting and inspired spin on what a film pirate could be.

However, many years ago, from the depths of a largely flawed film, the pirate captain performance shown here is not to be undone, my stupid sorry, parasitic sacks of entrails.

[yt]http://youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=MWSWokSYp-4[/yt]

Sure, the character himself may be more like a typical pirate, but Hoffmann gives ita lot of nuance, and his comic timing is impeccable. I can dream of a film where Hook, as shown here, and Sparrow are friends/ rival (a 'la Sparrow and Barbossa)

 

[Dream]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

do you think this is a start of a second trilogy?

We might get at least two more movies, but OST has to make plenty of money and Depp needs agree do more movies in order for Pirates 5 to happen.

 

[marillion]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I've just been thinking a bit more (watch out!) about the characters and I will have to say that this movie missed something by not having characters such as those portrayed by Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly. Depp was great, of course, and Penelope Cruz was very good in her role.... But something was missing.. the Preacher and mermaid characters just didn't cut it for me...

I'm guessing Elizabeth was raising her baby, while Will was busy with his new job during the time of this movie. It would have been really nice to have either of them make a cameo though.

Right. Exactly... I didn't really want to see Elizabeth and Will again, as I feel their stories have been told to conclusion.. However, I would have liked to have a characters along their vein to be introduced that I could care about... I didn't find myself caring about the preacher. There was no back story there.

Barbosa and Captain Jack are wonderful characters, but they exist, even as main characters, on the perifery (sp?)... They will always be fun to watch but the real story shouldn't be about them... But in the original trilogy, Will and Elizabeth were who the real story was about. At least that's my interpretation.

 

[saturn5]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

Great Avatar Procutus and I should confess the mermaids were my favourite aspect of the film. They're remaking The Little Mermaid and I wonder if Steven Moffat had any idea about this before writing the Lily Cole bit in Dr Who? It lacked the charm of the previous eps so I just voted average.

Historical error. The Royal Navy in this film flies the modern Union Jack with the red diagnols of the cross of St Patrick. However these weren't added until Ireland joined the United Kingdom and that was years after George the Second died. The Last of the Mohicans got it right

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I've just been thinking a bit more (watch out!) about the characters and I will have to say that this movie missed something by not having characters such as those portrayed by Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly. Depp was great, of course, and Penelope Cruz was very good in her role.... But something was missing.. the Preacher and mermaid characters just didn't cut it for me...

I'm guessing Elizabeth was raising her baby, while Will was busy with his new job during the time of this movie. It would have been really nice to have either of them make a cameo though.

Right. Exactly... I didn't really want to see Elizabeth and Will again, as I feel their stories have been told to conclusion.. However, I would have liked to have a characters along their vein to be introduced that I could care about... I didn't find myself caring about the preacher. There was no back story there.

Barbosa and Captain Jack are wonderful characters, but they exist, even as main characters, on the perifery (sp?)... They will always be fun to watch but the real story shouldn't be about them... But in the original trilogy, Will and Elizabeth were who the real story was about. At least that's my interpretation.

(periphery -- but close enough )

I agree -- OST was a good romp overall, but it did feel like there was some magic/lightning-in-a-bottle missing, unlike COTBP. Even Barbossa felt a bit 'off' to me, to be honest (Although him eating apples at a fancy dinner setting on the ship was inspired. ) Just IMO, though, of course.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Dream]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

Barbosa and Captain Jack are wonderful characters, but they exist, even as main characters, on the perifery (sp?)... They will always be fun to watch but the real story shouldn't be about them... But in the original trilogy, Will and Elizabeth were who the real story was about. At least that's my interpretation.

I think of the entire first trilogy as being about Elizabeth. The first scene had her as a little girl and the last scene after the credits in AWE had her as a mom. It is her story, but Jack was just the breakout character that everyone wanted to see more of in the sequels.

It was cool that they brought back Barbossa. Rush is just as great as Depp in these movies. I hope he keeps appearing. He is the Daffy Duck to Jack's Bugs Bunny.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

do you think this is a start of a second trilogy?

We might get at least two more movies, but OST has to make plenty of money and Depp needs agree do more movies in order for Pirates 5 to happen.

Thankfully, the one thing they don't have to worry about is Johnny Depp losing interest. He seems very eager to keep revisiting the character. It looks like he's finally found his Indiana Jones.

Historical error. The Royal Navy in this film flies the modern Union Jack with the red diagnols of the cross of St Patrick. However these weren't added until Ireland joined the United Kingdom and that was years after George the Second died. The Last of the Mohicans got it right

I was a bit confused over how this movie is supposed to fit in with the real history of Blackbeard, if at all. Someone makes reference to him being decapitated, so presumably this takes place after his fateful confrontation against Lt. Maynard. However, that wouldn't explain how he retrieved the Queen Anne's Revenge (the remains of which were recently discovered buried among the sand banks of North Carolina).

A shame since one of the main virtues of the Tim Powers novel was that it tied into historical events really well yet still put a new spin on them. (It reveals that the real reason why Blackbeard severely wounded his loyal 1st mate Israel Hands was so that Hands wouldn't be among the crew that Blackbeard sacrificed as part of his resurrection spell. It also reveals that the reason why Stede Bonnet inexplicably left his wealthy estate to become a pirate was because he was under Blackbeard's mind control. And the reason why Bonnet broke his pardon and started pirating again under a different name wasn't to hide from the British authorities, but to hide his actions from Blackbeard.)

Blackbeard is a lot scarier in the book. Even in death, you can't escape him. He's probably the most powerful voodoo sorceror who ever lived.

I just read that Stranger Tides had LITERALLY HALF the budget of World's End. It went from 300 to 150 million. No wonder it felt so small in comparison!

Yeah. It feels like about half the movie that At World's End was. It also doesn't have any action scenes that really impressed me. All of the other films have that one signature piece that really makes me sit up and take notice. The Curse of the Black Pearl had the 1st swordfight between Jack & Will. Dead Man's Chest had the 3-way swordfight between Jack, Will, & Norrington. At World's End had that massive, massive maelstrom battle (the 1st time since 1983 that all of ILM was occupied working on a single sequence).

I just read that Stranger Tides had LITERALLY HALF the budget of World's End. It went from 300 to 150 million. No wonder it felt so small in comparison!

Where did you hear 150 million? That sounds too low. Boxofficemojo lists the budget as 250 million, which sounds more reasonable. Jerry Bruckheimer needs to learn how to keep the budgets for his movies down. I'm guessing much of the budget went into Depp's paycheck.

Some rumors say that Depp got $60 million for this one film. I suspect that's an exaggeration. I suspect that it was more likely $60 million for a 2 picture deal with an option for either Pirates of the Caribbean 5 or The Lone Ranger.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

I may even go to the OST midnight showing. The last time I went to one of those was TDK...

I wish I had gone to a midnight showing. Unfortunately, I had to work an 8:30am shift the following day. Overall, it's just a shame how much busier my friends & I all are now. I remember the openings of Dead Man's Chest & At World's End, we had pretty much everyone in costume.
Pirates!?!?!
That's me 2nd from the right as my own pirate creation, "Redbead the Wicked," at the Dead Man's Chest opening.

Here's the At World's End opening. And yes, that's a white woman doing Tia Dalma.

Wow, 35% on Rottentomatoes. That's 10% lower than even the crappy third movie.

What really surprised me was that even the positive reviews there are pretty mild. Even the most glowing praise basically amounts to, "Eh. It was better than At World's End." I was also surprised how many people I asked to come see On Stranger Tides with me on Sunday declined because they really, really didn't like At World's End.

Now, I always end up liking these sorts of movies better the 2nd time around. But my first impression of On Stranger Tides isn't particularly good (and I say this as someone who has grown to love At World's End). I agree that Jack & Barbossa both work better as peripheral characters. Jack especially works best as the wild card, which he can't be if he's the central protagonist.

And if you are making Jack the central protagonist, you need to open him up a bit more emotionally and make him more centrally involved in the narrative. Here, he just doesn't seem to have any stake in the plot. He has no interest in the Fountain of Youth, no interest in thwarting Blackbeard, and his romance with Angelica lacks any spark or sincerity.

Then there's all the other players in the film that I could never bring myself to care about. The Phillip/Serena romance never got enough development to be worth getting any screentime at all. And throwing in the Spanish adds absolutely nothing to the film and steal precious screentime away from all of the other half-baked elements of the film.

I was also really disappointed that they brought back so few of the characters from the previous films-- Pintel, Raghetti, Cotton, Marty, Scarlett, Giselle, Murtog, Mulroy, etc. (You know I'm a hardcore fan when I know Murtog & Mulroy's names.) I especially missed the comic relief Greek chorus that Pintel & Raghetti provided in the 1st 3. In some ways, I feel like Pintel & Raghetti define the Pirates of the Caribbean feel even moreso than Jack or Barbossa. Gibbs was back but didn't really get to do much, separated as he was from Jack & his usual role as exposition guy/Jack Sparrow-to-English translator. And as has been said, Barbossa just felt kinda off for most of the film.

I had high hopes at the beginning of the film and most of the beginning paid off for me. Jack Sparrow impersonating a judge continues the tradition of great Jack Sparrow movie entrances but in an unexpected way. Jack's carefully orchestrated escape from the King's palace reestablishes Jack's original status of crazy-as-a-fox from the 1st film. (In Dead Man's Chest & At World's End, he often seemed more like an idiot savant who survived more on luck than skill.) But after Jack's ill-fated mutiny on the Queen Anne's Revenge, the movie loses steam and never recovers.

I also thought the timing of the last scene (before the credits) never quite gelled. And when Jack describes the ritual for unshrinking the Black Pearl to Mr. Gibbs, it kinda seems like Depp is doing a pisstake on all the ritual object collecting from the film, which seems a bit too self-aware, even for this franchise. (And this from a guy who keeps imagining a scene where Jack anachronistically sings the Billy Joel song "Captain Jack.")

 

[timothy]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

plan to see it tommarrow can't wait.

 

[timothy]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

with jack father appearing in this movie and having actual lines. will we see more from him and what is his name? over all loved the movie stayed till the end loved it all. and what was with the spanish destroying the fountin any ways?(I know it proablly had something to do with the inquestion but really.) and the guy who was the missionary will there be a follow up with him and serina? this movie has so many questions left to answer need to read the series. and lastly how will jack free the peral and the rest of the fleet?

 

[Nowhere Man]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

Finally saw this movie, I voted average, but I prefer letter grades. I would say C+/B- which I guess would be closer to above average. I would like to see it again though. I thought there was plenty of action and no real dull moments. I thought all of the jokes were funny, but some were corny as he'll. I guess that is for the kids. I loved the overall plot and Blackbeard was evil and awesome. I loved Penelope Cruz's character. I came into this movie not really caring that Will and Elizabeth were not there, but I do feel like maybe Will could have fit into the story. I do feel like the misionary and the mermaid was filling that vpod, which is fine. I felt like the Spaniards were unnesseary and could have been cut out. I did get an Indy Jones vibe at the end, but I liked it. The fountain of youth is a pretty big legend so it's not like any one owns it. I loved how Jack finally did a good deed in the end and I loved the ending. I was disappointed at first that the Pearl was not in the movie, but the way things turned out is fine. Overall I liked it.

 

[timothy]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

the pearl was in the movie it was in the bottol. and I have a few of those my self.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

the pearl was in the movie it was in the bottol. and I have a few of those my self.

I'm aware of that, but I was disapointed Jack didn't already have the Pearl in his possesion, but the Pearl bieng in the bottle is a good plot device for the sequel.

 

[timothy]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

did you not see at worlds end barbosa had the pearl. and jack had the map for the fountin of youth. which does look like a miniature version of the guardian of forever.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Discussion and Gradi

Just saw the movie tonight. I really liked it. The Spanish angle seemed to be unnecessary and the love story between the missionary and the mermaid seemed forced, but overall, I enjoyed it.