(photo via Disney)

Now that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has officially opened I have no problems giving you guys my review. I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum (with warning). I’m also going to ignore the whole 3D aspect as that’s a subject I tend to rant about too often. Instead I’ll stick to the movie itself and the score. 

I admit I was excited to see this latest installment of my beloved Pirates series but at the same time I was dreading it. Think about it, how many movies have actually produced 3 decent quality sequels? So you can imagine the mix of emotions I had while sitting through previews. By the end of the movie I was pleasantly surprised. The final vote was: enjoyment.

True, the plot did seem a little slow at points but I’ll admit that some rather witty dialogue helped disguise those moments until they passed. And though the sword fights that were in the movie were very well done there were far too few of them in my opinion. I mean, honestly, I could probably be easily satisfied with 90 minutes of awesome sword fights. Also, if you were a fan of the smithy sword fight from the first movie (as one of my twitter peeps is) then you’ll probably really enjoy the first sword fight of this movie. It recaptures that feel which was pleasing to watch.

Blackbeard was awesome. The actor who played him was good enough that I was able to believe he really was that pirate. According to a friend of mine (who was also at the screening) the movie even had a line of dialogue by Blackbeard that was actually said by him (or at least, reported as such) in real life. Kudos to the writers for that bit of fun. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the dialogue in the movie was well written. Plenty of laughs and groans abounded.

As for cameos and other happy bits, look for a moment of great amusement with Dame Judi Dench in the beginning and definitely stay through the credits at the end. It’s worth it for more than just listening to an excellent score.

Ah yes, the score. I’ll have to clap Hans Zimmer on the back for making sure that the score contained enough elements from the first three movies to make it a “Pirates of the Caribbean” score. They’re woven in very well with newer music and themes. Heck, I even liked hearing the main theme played on a Spanish guitar. Who knew? I bought the soundtrack right after I got home after the movie and my biggest complaint is that nearly half the tracks on the far too short album are remixes. I’d much rather only have one remix (and a separate album for all of them) with more of the original music from the movie. Still, I did enjoy this soundtrack, what little there was on the album.

There were parts of the movie that had me rolling my eyes, and not in a good way. I won’t spoil it for you but I will say that the biggest one involved the plotline with the man of the cloth. Oy. And let’s not talk about the shots that were added in anticipation of the 3D effect that I could have done without.

Overall, I was pleased. The movie was well done and still kept the feel of the Pirates series. I’m curious to see how the next two movies will go and if they’ll bring back more familiar faces (like certain members of the crew…you know who you are!). I’m sure that not everyone will enjoy this movie but for this fangirl, it will be worth the price of a ticket to see it again in theaters.

Written by: Elf Writer