Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Name: Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Genre: Adventure/ Fantasy

Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Rob Marshall (Director)

Synopsis: Jack Sparrow came to London to rescue his mate, Joshamee Gibbs but Jack’s real reason to come to London is to find the person who is impersonating Jack and recruits a crew. As jack thought he rescued Gibbs, both Gibbs and Jack were taken into custody and Jack was taken to King George II. King wants Jack to guide and expedition to found Fountain of Youth before the Spanish. Jack asks him to ask him to give him a ship and a crew for the expedition but his also gives him a captain for the ship i.e. Captain Barbossa who is now a privateer in the Royal Navy. Jack escapes from there. He meets his father captain Teague, who warns him that the Fountain of Youth will test him. Later on, he came to know that the person who was impersonating Jack is none other than Angelica, who is her former lover and daughter of Blackbeard, a ruthless pirate. Jack is forced to lead Blackbeard’s crew to Fountain of Youth. Jack was onboard on Queen Anne’s Revenge, where he came to know that the fountain water must be drink from two silver chalices that once belonged to Juan Ponce de Leon. The person who drinks from the chalice containing mermaid’s tear will have the life extended and the other person will die as the remaining life will be extracted from it. On other hand, Gibbs memorizing the Jack’s map and later on destroys it, forcing a deal with Barbossa that he will spare his life in return he will take Barbossa to the Fountain of Youth. Blackbeard wants this fountain power so that he could prevent his fatal encounter with the “one legged man, Barbossa” and set a course for White Bay. They were attacked by group of angry mermaids but Blackbeard was able to capture one of them. Philip Swift, a captive missionary by Blackbeard falls in love with the mermaid and names her Syrena. Blackbeard sends Jack to retrieve the chalices from Leon’s ship.

Jack finds the old ship and enters in it and later meet Barbossa was there too. Both of them came to know that chalices are in the possession of Spanish. Barbossa in reality only seeks revenge against Blackbeard attacking the Pearl, which force Barbossa to cut his own leg in order to escape and tells him that reason is to kill Blackbeard as for revenge of losing Pearl. Jack and Barbossa joined forces. Jack steals the chalices from Spanish men. Syrena meanwhile also starts reciprocating Philip’s feelings. But through the trickery of Blackbeard able to get mermaid’s tear and after that left that mermaid to die. Blackbeard takes Philip with him. Soon Jack meets Blackbeard with the chalices and strikes a deal with Blackbeard that he wants his magical compass and the release of Gibbs and in exchange to that, he vows to take Blackbeard to give him the Chalices and take them to the Fountain of Youth. Blackbeard agrees to the deal. When they reached fountain, Blackbeard and his crew meets Barbossa and his men. As fight starts soon, Spanish and their men appeared and tried to destroy both Chalices and the fountain. During the fight Barbossa stabs Blackbeard with his poisoned laced sword. Angelica when tries to take that poisoned sword from Blackbeard she cuts herself too. Barbossa takes Blackbeard magical sword and his crew too. Philip got injured during the fight but manages to escapes from there and frees Syrena. Spanish throws broken chalices into the water. Syrena takes the chalices and back to Jack. She goes back to Philip and kisses him and takes him back to water. As both Blackbeard and Angelica were injured and wounded, Jack convinces that Angelica to drink from the chalice which contains the mermaid’s tear and Blackbeard should sacrifice his life for Angelica’s safety. Blackbeard asks Angelica to drink the water from other chalice and let him drink from the chalice containing the tear. Angelica agrees to it and drinks from the chalice which doesn’t contain the tear. But Jack deceives them in the matter that Angelica actually drinks from the chalice containing the tear and Blackbeard drinks the opposite one. Blackbeard’s body was consumed by fountain and eventually killed him. Angelica admits her love to Jack but Jack knows that Angelica will try to take revenge against him for Blackbeard’s death; he strands her on an Island with one pistol and a shot. Barbossa claims Queen Anee’s Revenge and the rest of the crew and becomes a pirate again as he has taken his revenge. Jack finds Gibbs, who used his compass to locate and take the shrunken Pearl. But Gibbs has taken all the shrunken ships in bottles which were in possession of Blackbeard. He hopes to bring Black Pearl back to his original form and determines to continue a pirate life as he said “it’s a pirate’s life for me, Savy”. In the post credit scenes, Angelica sitting on shore of Island finds the voodoo doll of Jack and looks with a grin.

Review: Being the forth part of the Pirates of the Caribbean, lot of hopes were there from the movie and the movie no doubts clears the coast very well. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush’s were performance were as usual excellent. As there was no Orlando Bloom and Keira in this part so there a something that can be doubted in the movie but bringing in Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane was a good move which brings new energy, style and a variety in the movie with Ian McShane as ruthless and aggression and Penelope with sensuousness and sexy pirate. Direction of the movie was decent. Story of the movie is very much unique and it’s some of the previous parts. Movie is not of action one but it is more of an adventurous and fantasy movie with concepts of Fountain of Youth, Mermaids, and Chalices etc. which were very unique. Special effects of the movie are also above average. Overall the movie is a good entertainment with full of adventure, fantasy and a little dramatic twist in the end, with the solid performance of Johnny Depp with his Humor, style and the way the pirate. “Oh yes! Very Piratey”.  

Stars given: 3.5 out of 5.