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From a distance, few sequels could seem as redundant as a fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. A franchise that ran short of ingenuity long before it sailed into incomprehensible territory (“At Wit’s End,” we might have called the last one), the “Pirates” property can’t really fool anyone into thinking it has a greater purpose these days than raking in more box-office booty. And, indeed, through much of the first hour of “On Stranger Tides,” you can almost hear cash registers cha-chinging over the incessant sound of clanging swords. Suffice it to say, swash isn’t the only thing buckling here.
Perhaps in an effort to slow its own hourglass sands, “Pirates” opts for a Fountain of Youth storyline this time out, sending guylinered Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and his cartoonishly ethnic ex-lover Angelica (Penélope Cruz) on a convoluted mission to find the life-giving waters. Along for the ride is Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Angelica’s fearsome pirate pops, and in pursuit is the crusty, newly peg-legged Capt. Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush). The octopus-like impetus for the voyage is hardly worth explaining, especially since it’s belabored ad nauseum in the dizzyingly expository dialogue. What you need to know is mermaids are mean, Blackbeard is meaner and Jack is still a wellspring of contrived punch lines and half-drunken arrogance.
The filmmakers (producer Jerry Bruckheimer, writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot, and new director Rob Marshall) extravagantly exhaust the notion of Jack’s enduring eminence, but neither he nor anything else carried over from previous films can maintain much interest. It’s the newer elements that excite, namely the growling, voodoo-practicing Blackbeard and those ravenous, predatorial mermaids. This series has always featured strong and vivid villains, and, in that sense, it deftly maintains its just-won’t-quit momentum.
But is that enough to warrant trekking out to see the latest voyage? Yes and no. “Pirates 4” takes what feels like ages to distinguish itself, yet its peaks boast the kind of rollicking adventure this writer associates with warm weather. There are certainly worse ways to spend your summer-movie doubloons.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
PG-13
Two-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Kaboom
Not rated
Available Tuesday
Returning to the hedonistic, borderline-nihilistic style that brought him cult success in the 1990s, writer/director Gregg Araki has a blast with “Kaboom,” an infectiously freewheeling bubble gum sex noir that’s markedly cohesive for being so wild.
Thomas Dekker leads a hot cast of game young actors in a film that, thus far, is one of 2011’s better releases. SPR
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