Sinking Ship

CAST: Johnny Depp,Penelope Cruz,Geoffrey Rush,Ian McShane

Rating: **1/2

Disney said it aimed to “scale it down” with this fourth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The prequels had “gotten bigger and bigger” and “more complicated”,it said,and with On Stranger Tides,it would “reboot”,go back to “its core,its essence,just characters”.

This isn’t that film. POTC 4 has at a time three ships,though with thankfully only two running narratives,the one and only Blackbeard in addition to pirates Jack Sparrow and Barbossa,and the quest is for the fountain of youth through waters filled with deadly mermaids and for chalices on another,long-lost ship (When “chalice” comes up in a conversation,you know the kind of film you are into.)

Rob Marshall,having taken over the direction reins from Gore Verbinski,does a pretty good job of juggling it all together — even squeezing in a gooey-eyed romance between a cleric and a mermaid,for maximum comfort. However,in the end,it’s a juggle,and it gets tiresome trying to keep your eyes on all of it for more than two hours,especially with Jack Sparrow there providing his own brand of entertainment.

Yes,Depp manages to pull off his drunk,daredevil pirate act again,facing down kings,making escapes and cracking jokes,and visibly having fun with Sparrow — not a mean achievement having kept it going for eight years now,and admitting being tired of it.

However,the one big change in his life,the appearance of his former lover-turned-fellow pirate Angelica (Cruz),doesn’t work as well. Cruz looks tired and struggles to catch the flow for most of the film. It’s tempting to attribute it to her being pregnant,and the swashbuckling extravaganza involving an alarming lot of trekking,jumping,climbing and fighting perhaps didn’t help. However,she seems more disinterested than anything else — even the interludes between her and Depp do nothing to light up the screen.

Depp and Rush as Barbossa are another matter. As kindred spirits and willing sparring partners,they sparkle together — one as much fun as the other. McShane compliments them with his Blackbeard act,given to black magic as his namesake but as appreciative of a good joke as the second pirate. Another highlight of the film is the sequence where the mermaids first make their appearance,which takes a course you least foresee.

However,it’s sad that POTC 4 couldn’t be more about the pirates themselves than about a quest for eternal life down SFX seas with mermaid tears as recipe,riding on 3D clutches it uses to least benefit. ‘Captains’ Jack Sparrow,Barbossa and Blackbeard,one trusts,if not hopes,have been on stranger tides.