Changing Lanes

Disney chooses to scale it down. How much bigger can the series get they said. A complete reboot…back to basics. And that’s what I like about this movie. A lot simpler but entertaining at the same time like how the original ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl’ was which I adore more than the other two installments.

Johnny Depp returns as Jack Sparrow (There Should Be A "Captain" In There Somewhere); the swashbuckling pirate nailing the role once again with Ian McShane making his Pirates debut as Blackbeard; the villain in this installment who even though does justice to the role but isn’t able to fill the mighty shoes of Bill Nighy (who played Davy Jones in the previous installments). Kevin McNally plays the ever faithful and equally funny sidekick Gibbs and Geoffrey Rush does a fantastic job yet again as Captain Barbossa though this time with a wig. Penélope Cruz as Angelica is rather impressive; a little feisty but easier on the eyes though with her rather underdeveloped character, she lacks the screen presence that Keira Knightley had. Honestly all the new characters seemed that way which was disappointing. Sam Claflin as Philip could have been utilized better while Astrid Berges-Frisbey as the Mermaid Syrena was awkward to say the least because she hardly had anything to do and the fact that she was artistically naked seemed to excite some people in the theatre. More could have been done with both those characters and the same could be said about Blackbeard who seemed a little forced and cliché. In fact quite a few scenes in the beginning of the movie were predictable, something you wouldn’t expect from Captain Jack Sparrow.

The rather uncomplicated story starts off a little slowly picking up pace somewhere in the middle taking the viewers on a vivacious fun ride. The mermaid scene is by far the highlight of the movie for me…mermaid sharks/vampires as my sister put it. The cinematography, graphics, sets and costumes are immaculate while the action sequences are exhilarating. The background score is a little unoriginal and loud in some scenes though did add to the complete pirated package. The supporting small characters were nonexistent unlike the other installments which was a rather big disappointment while Orlando Bloom (who played Will Turner) interestingly wasn’t missed at all.

Rob Marshal has done a better than expected job as a first time Pirates director making a flawed but still fun movie. Even though this is claimed to be a reboot of the series, comparisons do crop up and this may not be the best installment but it is surely not the worst.