New Trailer for 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' Hits
by Scott Nye
Admission - I actually really like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Yep, all three.
They're one of the few blockbuster franchises of the past decade willing to embrace their own silliness, and the result is pretty breakneck entertainment. They're big and dumb and goofy and thrilling and everything that summer movies abandoned when it was decided they had to retell "the hero's journey" nine hundred times each year. When "Transformers" has an air of self-importance, you know you're in trouble.
That said, I don't think Captain Jack Sparrow, the role that ensured Johnny Depp would never really try to act again (that's not totally fair - he was awesome in "Public Enemies"), makes for a terribly compelling protagonist.
He's one of the best supporting characters you can ask for, but to hang an entire movie on him seems ill-advised. He's better as the jester, the one to point out the insanity that surrounds him and undercut everyone's attempt to take anything seriously.
That, and the absence of director Gore Verbinski, is why I'm not feeling too good about "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Rob Marshall (director of "Chicago" and "Nine") is a capable director, but not one with any real vision whatsoever, and everything in this new trailer just points to him following Verbinski's lead instead of injecting it with his own insight.
And we're back to Jack trying to get his boat back from somebody else.
Maybe I'll be wrong - I didn't think "Dead Man's Chest" (the second film) would amount to much, and came away thinking it was the best part of the franchise, so who knows? Either way, the new trailer hit today at Yahoo! Movies, so see for yourself if it's worth your money. "On Stranger Tides" comes out on May 20th.