Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Movie Review

Disney started off with a strong with a film franchise that was based on one of their theme park attractions; Pirates of the Caribbean. The trilogy as a whole ended up being pretty weak, At World's End was a bit too far out there. Disney has released a fourth installment to keep the cash cow franchise alive, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and you know what? It wasn't too bad.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) crosses paths with Angelica Teach (Penélope Cruz), a woman from his past and he's not sure if there is still love there, or if she's a ruthless con artist who's using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn't' know who to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica. En route to find the Fountain of Youth, they discover a Spanish armada as well as Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Jack's nemesis, hot on their trail. All parties bent on being the first to take advantage of the Fountain of Youth.

I loved the first Pirates movie; Johnny Depp is what made it so good. He was encouraged to improvise. The script basically had what the point of the scene was and  Depp was supposed to fill it in with his own material. That gave the character Jack Sparrow and the whole lot more spontaneity and gave the movie a comical quirkiness that made it so endearing. It ultimately influenced Pirates as a pop culture icon. The second and third movies were fun, but they pushed credibility too far and had a hard and fast script (no improvising here) which wasn't as good as Depp's improvisations. On Stranger Tides brought us back to what made the first movie good, but still had some of the bits that made the second and third movie weak.

Johnny Depp is without a doubt Captain Jack Sparrow. No one else can play that role the way he does. Depp uses improvisation and his signature quirkiness to bring comical spontaneity to On Stranger Tides. He's got some witty lines and hilarious delivery. He says things like, " Captain, I wish to report a mutiny. I can name fingers and point names." and "You know that feeling you get when you're standing in a high place... sudden urge to jump?... I don't have it." If for no other reason, seeing Johnny Depp play Jack Sparrow again makes the movie worth seeing.

As was the case in the third movie, At World's End, there isn't really a good guy to root for. Sure, you want Jack Sparrow to win just because he's so fun, but the movie consists of a few anti-heroes and a whole bunch of bad guys. By the climax of the movie, there are about five different groups convening and they start fighting with one another. They could have realistically taken out at least two of those groups out to simplify everything without actually losing any plot points. The story gets convoluted and hard to follow the closer we get to the end the movie.

Blackbeard was a great villain! He's downright evil. He's at least as nasty as Barbossa was in the first Pirates movie. He's got some great lines, he had a menacing presence, and he is simply someone you don't want to cross.

There was a theme of religious faith and redemption that seemed out of sorts when juxtaposed against the mermaids, voodoo zombies, pirates, and floating water. The Queen Anne's Revenge has a young clergyman on it for some reason and he and Blackbeard are often at odds about the value of faith and whether or not hell is actually something to worry about. While the theme is ultimately put to reasonably good use in terms of character development, I felt the whole religiosity thing was taken a bit lightly. I doubt that even the most devout Christians would find reason to be offended by any of it, it just felt ill-suited for a movie about pirates having a supernatural adventure.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was a fun movie, though not necessarily a good movie. It had lots of fun, but improbable fight scenes, some supernatural action, a few new faces, and some familiar faces from the previous films. Keith Richards even makes another brief appearance as Captain Teague, Jack's father. It's still a bit weak as some of the characters were completely unnecessary and the story gets convoluted later on. It's more of what made the first movie good, and more of what made the other ones not so good. In the end, it's a fun movie that you'll probably only enjoy if you liked the previous movies. It's a renter, but since I already own the first three, I feel obligated to get this one to complete my collection. Holding true to Pirates of the Caribbean tradition, make sure you stick around for the post-credits scene.

Apart from Captain Jack Sparrow, who is your favorite Pirates of the Caribbean character? Comment below, and tell me why!

Jack the Giant Slayer Movie Review

Several dark fairy tale revisions have come out in the past couple of years. Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood, and Snow White and the Huntsman have been darker, edgier retellings of well known fantasy stories. While they aren't at fault for having female protagonists by any means, I'm glad we got a fairy tale movie with a male protagonist in Jack the Giant Slayer (2013).

Jack's (Nicholas Hoult) family farm is near ruin and goes to sell his horse at the castle village. A strange monk gives Jack a small bag of magical beans as collateral for promised money in exchange for the horse. That evening the runaway princess Isabella (Eleanor Tomlinson) arrives at Jack's cottage to escape the rain. After one of the beans falls between the floorboards, the cottage is caught in a giant beanstalk growing miles high. Isabella is trapped in the cottage while Jack falls to the ground. The King (Ian McShane) orders the leader of the elite guard, Elmont (Ewan McGregor), to lead some men up the beanstalk to save his daughter, Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), a noble meant to marry the princess, but seems to have ulterior motives, and Jack accompany them. At the top they discover the legendary realm of the giants, but when Fallon, (Bill Nighy) the leader of the giants, discovers the humans, he plans to use the beanstalk to reclaim to the land below.

Jack and the Beanstalk has always been a favorite fairy tale of mine. I'm delighted to say that this version is a exciting, original, and entertaining adventure. Like Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Slayer has all the elements you expect from the original tale; selling farm animals for magic beans, gigantic beanstalks, man eating giants, the "Fee-fi-fo-fum" line, etc. It's a respectable adaptation of the original fairy tale while still throwing a bunch of new twists and turns at us, yet the new elements still seem like the stuff of classic fairy tales and don't seem out of sorts in the movie.

Jack the Giant Slayer was directed by Bryan Singer who is known for directing or producing the three good X-Men movies out of the five that are currently out. Like his other movies, Jack the Giant Slayer was very visually based and special effects intensive. Yet like the [good] X-Men movies, there is a nice balance of story and visual effects. There are several points in the movie I just had to step back and marvel at the detail in the visual effects. Not everything was CGI, though; we saw some gorgeous countryside scenery and some very elaborate sets. Exterior shots of Isabella's castle had to be digital imagery, but most of the interior shots looked like actual sets, and they were very impressive.

The characters aren't the main focus of the movie, the visual effects are. The giants are all computer animated, but they still move in a lifelike way, and as if they have a weight to them. It's pretty distracting when a computer-animated creature in a movie moves like it weighs nothing; it's like the movie screams, "Hey! This is fake!" But even things like the miles-high beanstalk being chopped down were well animated. A beanstalk that grows miles high is going to be extremely heavy and will likely cause considerable damage when chopped down. Jack the Giant Slayer did all that and more. It was genuinely fun to watch.

Jack the Giant Slayer was a fun movie. The characters were predictable, but were played by some excellent actors. The special effects were amazing and well executed. There is lots of action, a few laughs, plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and several moments that cause you to go, "Wow, that was cool!" There are parts that are predictable, but the movie presents them in unique and creative ways. I'd say it's an above average renter, but if you can catch it in theaters it's really exciting and fun on the big screen. I may get a copy on Blu-Ray when it becomes available.

What's a dark fairy tale movie you'd like to see made in the future? I think a dark, medieval Beauty and the Beast would be pretty amazing. Comment below and tell me all about it!

Kung Fu Panda Movie Review

Dreamworks has done several animated movies that  were mediocre attempts to capitalize on the success of Pixar’s masterpieces. Dreamworks tried to undermine Pixar’s A Bug’s Life (1998) with Antz (1998). They did it again when they released Shark Tale (2004) after the success of Finding Nemo (2003). When Dreamworks does their own movies, instead of copying Pixar, they really let themselves shine. I’m leery of anything with Jack Black in it, so I watched Kung Fu Panda (2008) with some hesitation.

Po (Jack Black) is an overweight, lazy, irreverent panda who is a dedicated fan of Kung Fu, but his skills are limited to making noodle soup at his father’s restaurant. Po adores the Furious Five - Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross) – a team of Kung Fu masters trained by the red panda named Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to protect their peaceful valley. One day, Shifu's mentor, the old tortoise Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), has a vision that Shifu's former student and adoptive son, the evil snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), will escape from prison and return to take revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to limitless power. Oogway holds a tournament to discover who is worthy of the Dragon Scroll and become the Dragon Warrior who can defeat Tai Lung. Through a blundering mishap, Po is selected. Shifu, lacking faith in Po, attempts to scare off Po with grueling training. But Po’s unwavering enthusiasm for Kung Fu keeps him going. True to Oogway’s vision, Tai Lung escapes and begins journeying to the temple. Po can’t seem to grasp even the most basic concepts of Kung Fu, but Shifu discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. Using this discovery, Shifu begins training Po and incorporating these feats into a makeshift, yet effective Kung Fu style. But will it be enough to stop Tai Lung from getting the Dragon Scroll, and unlimited power?

I don’t like Jack Black on general principle; he gets cast in irritating roles in movies that do pretty badly. Year One (2009) and Gulliver's Travels (2010) are great examples of this. It’s hard to overlook these eyesores and look at his good movies, such as King Kong (2005) and Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black actually was funny in this movie. His screwball delivery really worked well with Po’s hilarious expressions. He is still playing his usual dim witted impertinent character, but Po is more interesting and complex than most of the other characters I’ve seen Jack Black play. You really do see Po develop and learn as the movie progresses. It was also good to see a hero that was a clumsy, fat character; generally the best that this archetype can hope for is a bumbling sidekick who is the brunt of most of the jokes. I’ve never seen so much belly bouncing combined with martial arts as was done with this character.

I kept becoming awestruck at the artistic scenery of the colorful ancient China. Little details here and there really helped make the art stand out; the trees, mountains, and buildings were beautifully designed. The China-inspired relics and art were comparable to actual art work of ancient China. There was a whole lot of detail in the art design, which helped make the movie endearing.

The animation was quite impressive, too. Most of the characters looked like cute, fluffy stuffed animals. This, coupled with the believable martial arts movements, created a humorous sense of irony throughout the film. Even the movements for Viper, who is a snake, were interesting; she has no arms or legs, yet her fighting movements still resembled martial arts.

I love it when I expect a movie to be substandard and I end up being wrong. Kung Fu Panda is an example of this. There’s a whole lot of slapstick in this film, but it doesn’t detract from the interesting characters and fun story that is reminiscent of old Kung Fu flicks. I’d recommend this movie to anyone, young or old. It is engaging, funny, and worth the watch.