Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

First let me inform you that I have seen all of the other "Pirates" movies.  I liked the first two but thought the third, At Worlds End, was absolutely atrocious.  It was way too long and had way too much nonsensical narrative that was impossible to follow.  I was very skeptical about seeing this one because my most recent experience but, I had some small hope that this would be better.

On Stranger Tides is the fourth in the "Pirates" series starring Johnny Depp.  As usual the story follows Captain Jack Sparrow on his adventure to find some kind of treasure, this time it's the Fountain of Youth.  On his quest he meets up with quite a few new pals and some old faces as well.  The journey is confusing, again, and while sometimes fun still gets very slow and stale in parts.  The pacing of the last two "Pirates" films has been very poor.

On Stranger Tides is also missing two of the main cast members from the previous films, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, who were smart enough to bail on the series.  Penelope Cruz steps in as the female lead and they use some old characters including Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) and Gibbs (Kevin McNally) in larger roles.  Depp does most of the action work and provides most of the comedy as well.  Depp does a pretty good job but the supporting cast is really pretty weak.  I'm not a fan of Penelope Cruz's acting skills.

I will give On Stranger Tides this, it's better than At Worlds End.  I didn't really enjoy it though.  I guess it was ok, if you really like these films but I'm not enough of a fan to ignore the confusing story and poor acting.  Better luck next time!  Yep, I think they'll make another, Disney could always use more $$$.