Rob Marshall has two of my favourite films under his directional belt; Chicago & Nine; both which have a dark directional edge to them. Just what the Pirates franchise would require of their director. However, what we were delivered is the complete opposite. The original characters; excepting for Gibbs; all kept the core of what their characters have always been. However, no matter what was happening on the screen, with all the characters, i could not see past how light it all looked/felt. Other than the obvious brightness of all the surroundings, the film never reaches any real deepness. The story line permitted a lot of it, yet somehow, it never quite managed to portray the darkness of the moment.
Having Marshall as the direct, does however, explain why we had the extremely corny and ridiculous dance scene between Jack Sparrow and Angelica Malon. It was just up his street, directing dance sequences is most certainly a skill of his. However, this did not fit in with the film, and seemed nothing more than a very cheap Disney gag. Considering his skill in this area, i would of thought 1) The dance scene would of been better and 2) There would of been more combat scenes, of a one on one nature with some decent choreographing, yet alas, these were seriously lacking.
One of things that i loved about the pirate films is that they haven't had the trade mark 'I'm a Disney film' feel about them when you watch them. To find out that they were truly a Walt Disney production was nothing more than a shock to me. Sadly i cannot report the same for the latest production. It was a classic Disney sequel, the characters repeating key phrases from the original, a week plot line being covered up with a tidal wave of cheap jokes.
Barbossa unfortunately taking a lot of the jokes.
Johnny Depp was at his usual brilliant standard, once again capturing the very essence of Jack Sparrow and bringing well and truly to life on our screens. Although, Sparrow did not appear to have the same wit about him, or cunning which he had in the previous pirates. Penélope Cruz i felt delivered the best performance her limited character could give. Although the moments where she was soft, felt too soft for my liking. Geoffrey Rush's character of Barbossa was the one to suffer the most for the Disney-isation of the whole film. The cheap gags, the repetitive lines seemed to all hit him. Which was a dying shame, since Barbossa was one of the brilliant characters from the movies. He had great depth, and cunning. However, luckily as the film goes on he becomes more like the Barbossa the previous pirate's gave us. I know partly this is due to the plot line and the direction the character had taken. Yet it seemed too much fundamental bit of his character were changed.Ian McShane is an actor, i must admit, that i haven't really come across before. His portrayal as the infamous Blackbeard was very convincing and well done. Although, it didn't seem like the kind of part that really needed much acting. Saying the lines and making your eyes wide whilst wearing mascara is all that seemed to be needed for this role. Kevin McNally once again played Gibbs, and he played him well. To be honest though, i did not see much point in adding Gibbs into the story line, it seemed he was more there just because he was so well liked in the previous pirates. Sam Claflin, an unknown, new to our screens actor. Cant say i saw any flaws in his acting, although i cant honestly say i saw anything special about him. Obviously put in to be the replacement 'eye candy' which supposedly Orlando Bloom brought to the mix. It didn't work for me. I know she was not a key member of the cast, nor was she the only guest star; far from it really; but i cant help but mention Dame Judi Dench, although her part was small, it was definitely worth seeing!
Please don't get me wrong. It is a good film. Its just no more than that, its is just good. Maybe if this was an original; as opposed to being 4th in a series of films; it could be seen as more.
In Conclusion: Good film. Seen in both 3d and 2d... don't waste your money in 3d. Well acted, however story line could of done with more development and really should of stuck with original director. Worth going to cinema to watch, worth owning on DVD for £3 or less.
