There's a pattern to be observed with some high cost franchises that are considered overly risky. That is, once the film series had been deemed by the studio to have a greatly reduced built-in audience, the budget is considerably lowered for the next sequel to ensure continued profitability. It's a tactic seen in the early Star Trek movies, the recent Rambo revival and more recently, the third Narnia movie The Dawn Treader.
After viewing the latest in Disney's mega-bucks money machine Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (and viewed in the context of it following the heavily scorned At Worlds End), you'd be mistaken for thinking it had been produced on a much smaller bankroll. But that's not the case as the studio poured $250 into the big black hole that is Pirates 4, but only a third of that seems to have made it's way to the silver screen. The story feels very small scale with the bulk taking place with the confines of tall ships on wrapped in the constricting foliage of Hawaiian jungle. It's scale is reduced even further by being mostly set at night, so the vastness of the jungle, the sprawl of the London streets and the grander of exotic locales in stead looks like it was filmed on studio 57 at BBC Television Centre (only the opening 15 minutes with a brisk prison escape through the crowded streets of the English capitol do things look value for money). Not only that, but there's no big scale effects sequences to indulge in like The Kraken, mile wide ocean whirl pools and armadas of ships as far as the eye can see. There's nowt. The sense of wonder is greatly diminished.
After the flaws in the last movie's script, the current plot isn't exactly a streamlined improvement as there's still multiple characters (Sparrow, Barbosa, Blackbeard, his daughter, a dashing missionary, and the Spanish Navy) all with their own back-stabbing, scheming agendas. Pirate's 4 script has been criticised for being too much like Tron Legacy, with far too much sitting around talking back story, and not enough being shown onscreen...and that's true in Pirate's case (although in Tron's defence they do actually show stuff in flashbacks). The plot's also very contrived (a familiar face bizarrely turns up to save Jack in an impossible coincidence), not that original (a touch too much of Indy 3) and, most unexpectedly, not that much fun.
The bold experiment for this Pirates movie in moving Jack Sparrow (sorry, that's Captain Jack Sparrow) from a background meddler in the main plot to the chief protagonist unexpectedly is a failure. It seems in some cases less is more whether it's Giger's Xenomorph in Alien, the Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince Of Thieves or Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. Having a fun thing to liven up a meal might work wonders, but if all you eat is the marzipan on a cake, then you're gonna feel sick pretty soon.
You might be surprised to hear that after paragraphs of criticism and complaint, On Stranger Tides isn't offensively bad. It doesn't make meant to hate it in the way that Wolverine or Godzilla both do. Take away the anticipation for epic CGI-ness and you're still left with a pleasent enough period romp. The cast are lively enough with a returning Depp and Rush as energetic and quirky as you'd expect, Penelope Cruz adds sass and sex appeal while Ian McShane is adequate, in reserved, villainous performance. There's a chisel jawed English Preacher and a pouting French Mermaid that fill the gap left by the departing Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom and while their story arc is a welcome bit of seriousness to break up the overkill of Sparrow, they are quite dull as actors. Finally, while much smaller in scale there's a couple of sequences like the Mermaid attack and Jack's escape from the Spanish camp that are memorable and exciting and despite the dingy over-all look, the gloominess does at least make On Stranger Tides have it's own identity.
Of course the sensible thing to do is to ask Bruckheimer to stop making Pirate movies. Then again, judging by his track record, perhaps the request should be widened to all movies. But I'll just be polite and say that I'm grateful I don't hate the latest effort. Cheers then.
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