Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Went to see the movie today and it has my vote.  I enjoyed it.  Jack Sparrow is back in all his glory and posturing.  Nobody swaggers better than Jack.

There was a lot more plot this time around, and a lot more characters.  There are several new ones.  The divergent story lines are fairly easy to keep up with, but they did turn the movie a bit to the episodic side.

Also, Jack is pretty much put into the hero's role, so the counter plots he usually comes up with are missing in action.  I like devious Jack when he's playing the game for himself only.  He still has some personal stakes, but they don't run contrary to anyone else we're rooting for.

The CG work in the movie is simply amazing.  So are the historical artifacts.  I especially enjoyed the old lighthouse sequence, as well as the mermaid attack.  All that was well done.

This is nothing more than a blood and thunder potboiler, but, boy, is it done well.  Penelope Cruz is awesome as a female pirate, and I do hope she comes back for the fifth movie.  They are talking about doing one.

But I'm still wondering how Johnny Depp is going to fit in his remake of The Thin Man, which has also been green lighted.  Depp is one of the busiest men in Hollywood.

And you should definitely read Tim Powers's book, On Stranger Tides, that this movie is based on.  It's a cracking good read and much different than the movie.