The film on the whole was ok, it was enjoyable and had its moments but had parts that were really unnecessary which brought the whole film down.
Pirates of the Caribbean ranking
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (best)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (tie)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (worst)
*SPOILERS START HERE*
The story of the fourth film was alright, the characters were all searching for the fountain of youth. There were four groups, Captain Jack & Tibbs, Captain Barbossa (for the British empire), Captain Blackbeard and the Spanish. Penelope Cruz was the female protagonist of this film, also acting as the "love interest" of Captain Jack. The main problem is that there were too many freaking unexplained and unnecessary parts that was just dragged out in the film.
Some plot holes include, why did no one recognize the judge as an impostor? Did the judge have like no friends or aquaintances at all? Why does Blackbeard randomly get occult powers (trapping ships in travel-size bottles, making working voodoo dolls, turning people into zombies, having a hat and sword that magically controls his boat)? Why did the Spanish waste troops and resources to find the fountain of youth if they did not want to use it? If they wanted to destroy the fountain, why couldn't they just destroy the chalices so the fountain would forever be lost? Why did the mermaid return the chalice to Captain Jack?
Penelope Cruz. She was not good or bad, just kinda, unassuming? The chemistry between her character and Depp's was not there, you didn't really feel anything for the two of them. Heck, the relationship between Sparrow and Barbossa was more interesting. Also, when she first appeared as an impostor of Jack Sparrow, the two of them had a fighting scene where she mirrored Captain Jack and the movie kept her in the shadows so that you could not see her face. That was stupid, her whole body language gave her away as a woman from the first, it made the entire fight boring and predictable.
I cannot get that mustache scene out of my head.On a similiar note, the movie also tried to show both Cruz's character and Blackbeard as unpredictable, trying to keep the viewer in suspense as to who will betray who i guess. The whole problem is that when it comes down to it, neither character are neutral characters, Cruz's charater is a good character from start to end and the opposite is true for Blackbeard. By trying to portray them as neutral characters, the two characters just feel shallow and undeveloped.
The entire introduction of mermaids into the story. Yea, they were beautiful but that was about it. They were entirely unnecessary to the plot, you could have replaced them with something that took up less time like morning dew or something and it would have been ok. The whole mermaid relationship with the priest was really awkward, and served no purpose other than to creep us out. Or maybe as fan service? It wouldn't be so bad if the whole mermaid thing didn't take up so much of the movie. The movie already had too much elements cramped together, cutting out the entire mermaid parts could have made the movie a lot more satisfying and conclusive.
Having said all that, the movie is still a film i would watch again. I really wouldn't be so harsh on the movie if i wasn't such a fan of the series. While it certainly has its flaws, there were moments that were pretty good like the Captain Jack-British army chase scene, and the king was also full of win (the movie would be awesome if it had more of him and Sparrow). It's just too bad the movie couldn't center around the more interesting characters, and instead had an uncomfortable balance of too little funny/emotional moments with too many neutral moments.
Also on a side note, the first film was awesome but got seriously pulled down by the second and third film, which is really such a pity. Also also,
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