Review

Captain Jack is back! In this fouth instalment of the Pirates franchise he’s off to find the fountain of youth, using and abusing people as he goes. It’s business as usual for our favourite pirate. With Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom’s story wrapped it’s opened up space for a horde of new characters including the infamous Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and a new love interest for Jack in Angelica (Penélope Cruz).

The story kicks starts in London with a mad chase through the city as Jack pulls off another great escape, only to be saved at the last second by his father (Keith Richards) and sent on his way to discover the fountain. Although the movie has an exciting new destination, it feels like something is lacking, like we’ve seen much of it before.

The greatest sequence comes from the most original part of the story, the mermaids. In this sequence we finally see a spark of that pirate’s magic that seems to have been lacking all along. The magic of exploring the unknown, the mythical is finally ignited. Although Jack’s relationship with Angelica brings in the humour and fun he had with Knightley, a true love story is nowhere to be found. That is, until the fresh faced Christian begins to fall in love with one of the mermaids.

The fourth instalment also brings in Hollywood’s money spinner, 3D, which yet again adds nothing to the excitement of the film and renders the often dark movie scenes almost completely black. Do yourself a favour and watch this one on a normal movie screen.

Hans Zimmer, Disney’s call to music man, works his magic again to wake us up in the usual fight after fight. For those Pirates fanatics, there’s a reward for sitting through the credits that may just ignite your excitement for yet another round. The question is, do we want one?

In the end, you feel satisfied to see Depp’s brilliant character up to mischief again. It feels as if there has been a step up from Pirates 3 levels, but it’s just not a big enough step to make this as great as the first time around. If a fifth movie does go ahead, they need to find a way of bringing the surprise factor back instead of just throwing in more fight scenes.