Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 American fantasy swashbuckler film, the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and a standalone sequel to At World's End (2007). It is the first film in the series not to be directed by Gore Verbinski, replaced by Rob Marshall. Jerry Bruckheimer again served as producer. In the film, which draws its plot loosely from the 1987 novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, the eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is forced into a shaky alliance with Angelica (Penélope Cruz), a mysterious woman from his past, as they embark on a quest for the Fountain of Youth, confronting the infamous pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and outrunning Jack's old foe Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was the first film in the series to be released in the Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D formats.

Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio first learned of Powers's novel On Stranger Tides during the back-to-back production of Dead Man's Chest (2006) and At World's End, and considered it a good starting point for a new film in the series. Pre-production started after the end of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, with Depp collaborating with the writers on the story design. Principal photography lasted for 106 days between June and November 2010, with locations in Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico and California. Filming employed 3D cameras similar to those used in the production of the 2009 film mh:greatestmovies:Avatar, and ten companies were involved with the film's visual effects. Following inflated production costs which ballooned the net budget to $379 million, the film currently ranks as the most expensive film ever made.

On Stranger Tides was released in the United States on May 20, 2011. The film broke many box office records and was the third highest-grossing film of 2011. A fifth film, titled Dead Men Tell No Tales, was released in May 2017, and a sixth film is in development.

Plot
The checkered past of Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) catches up to him when he encounters Angelica (Penélope Cruz), a beautiful pirate that Jack once loved then left. Angelica forces him to accompany her to Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the notorious Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Accompanied by a zombie crew, the trio sets sail to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. However, Jack's rival, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), also seeks the fountain, as does a ship from Spain.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The film wasted the charm of the three previous films that make it so enjoyable and great, as it is completely unnecessary for various reasons and was made to cash in. The main reasons that it didn't need a sequel is because the third film had a good ending where it didn't need a sequel because Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan's story arc ended with both of them married and having a son while Will, who has successfully freed his father Bootstrap Bill, departs on the Dutchman with Elizabeth promising to wait for him and keep his heart safe while Captain Jack Sparrow, having achieved pure freedom, sails off into the sunset to begin his voyage to the Fountain of Youth, and therefore it ended the franchise on a high note.
 * 2) Executive Meddling: Originally prior to the film's pre-production, the main producers and writers of Pirates of the Caribbean had in mind to develop a fourth installment that would be a prequel, which would feature "Jack and Gibs along with Barbossa (who was a privateer before he became in pirate) had an adventure with the Black Pearl facing Blackbeard”, however the Disney executives did not approve this project, due to the large amount of budget invested that they spent with Dead Man's Chest, and At World's End, for which by decision of Disney semifrozen these projects, however when Disney realized that the box office of his films during 2008 and 2009 did not exceed 800 or 1 billion or several of his future franchises began to fail, Disney rushed the realization of this film and improvised sought to make a Pirates of the Caribbean Universe or Franchise with new sequels, prequels, or spin off with each character of the movies.
 * 3) *Unfortunately this caused strong discussions or creative discussions. differences with the creative team of the films, due to this Gore Verbinski the director together with a good part of the scriptwriters gave up working on this future installment, in case it was not enough before these creative differences by order of Disney changed the original story of the film, where it stopped being a prequel and went on to make a sequel with the following story "Jack, Barbossa, Will and the crew of the Black Pearl with the Flying Dutchman in search of the Fountain of Youth facing the fearsome Blackbeard".
 * 4) **However, when Gore quit the entire cast of the film they also quit in response to Gore and others saying why Disney had allegedly treated them poorly during the production of the third installment and not paid them enough. that he promised them, before the resignation of the cast, Disney modified the script of the film again and seeing that it would not have the cast, combined several stories that were reflected in the projects of the sequels, prequels, and the Spin-Out with which had already been modified.
 * 5) *So by losing almost the entire creative team, and combining each of the project stories, for example:
 * 6) **The background of the mermaids was actually a spin-off of "Will and the Flying Dutchman"
 * 7) **Queen Anna's Revenge ship's curse as the power of Blackbeard's Sword, was a discarded draft of "From a Davy Jones prequel that later became a Barbossa sequel"
 * 8) **The story of and Sirena was a subplot involving "Will's son Henry in the spin-off"
 * 9) **The tense relationship between the Spanish and the British was from a sequel as well as a prequel, where they faced pirates
 * 10) *Due to the last minute combination of each of the stories such as the resignation of the actors, each of the projects that had been planned was frozen indefinitely, where Disney would only develop them, as long as the box office of the fourth installment there exceeded expectations, but at the end that never happened since the film despite its 1048 million, the film had a budget of 378 - 420 million which made it impossible to develop the other projects.
 * 11) Misleading Poster: Despite having Jack Sparrow in them, he doesn't feel like the main character, Blackbeard feels like the main character instead.
 * 12) *The movie should have been called Adventures of the Carribean because there's almost no piracy involved.
 * 13) Production hell: If the bad decisions of the Disney executives did not affect this project, the production of it was also very chaotic, due to the last-minute resignation of Gore Verbinski, the creative team, the actors, and the change in history, Disney delayed the production of the film, ordered the director Rob Marshall to make the film as soon as possible to release it at the end of 2010, this caused the Director not to record correctly several scenes of the already modified script, additionally the director Rob Marshall did not know how to handle adequately the budget since the same of the 250 million of which 100 million were given as payment to Johnny Depp, was increased in an exaggerated way, for several scenes they had to be re-edited continuously because they went to record in the sea, like the construction of several films sets that in the end never used them, and to obtain permissions in the cities of London or Madrid to record the prologue of the film, as re-recordings at the last minute due to the poor responses of the test transmissions.
 * 14) *On top of that, it was learned through leaks from people who worked on the film that several of the ships from the previous films, including the Flying Dutchman, were destroyed due to the confusion of the director and Disney who, by changing the script. He did not know at the last minute if they were going to use those ships, this was also reflected in the Black Pearl, since in the original script there was a scene of almost 10 minutes where Queen Anna's Revenge will attack the Black Pearl and Blackbeard with the power of the sword used it to trap the Black Pearl in one of their bottles, however, due to the aforementioned confusion, they transformed the Black Pearl into Queen Anna's Revenge, and seeing that they were unable to record in the sea how to invest a lot of money in build another Black Pearl or build two sets of Black Pearl and Queen Anna's Revenge, Disney ordered the cancellation of this scene, which is ironic as a bad decision since according to the leaks it was one of the few action scenes in the movie script.
 * 15) Corruption in Test Screening: As already mentioned, the executive discussions such as the chaotic production notably damaged the film's plot, however another of the problems that the film faced were its test broadcasts, at the beginning of 2011 and in the middle of 2012, some people who had worked in the production of the film as well as people who had participated in the broadcasts, affirmed that the tests made for the film were more than disappointing who negatively criticized the film due to its excess of dialogues as well as its lack of action scenes, where in response to the poor reception that was obtained in the two test broadcasts that were made to the film, caused it to be re-recorded at the last minute, where several scenes of Blackbeard and his crew were left out and they were increased combat scenes.
 * 16) *This was also reflected in the scene of the escape from London or the sirens that were improvised scenes at the last minute, due to the lack of action in the film, such as the excess of dialogue, at the same time several scenes were recounted, including conversations between Jack with Barbossa, Blackbeard's powers and a 5 minute scene where Barbossa becomes the new captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge-
 * 17) Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, Hector Barbossa, Cotton's Parrot, and Jack the Monkey are the only characters from the first three films who return here. Neither Will Turner nor Elizabeth Swan, the other main characters from the original trilogy, come back in this sequel, are they aren't even mentioned as if they don't exist anymore.
 * 18) *The rest of the Black Pearl crew doesn't return as well because Blackbeard apparently killed them offscreen, which is an indignant finale for many fan-beloved characters like Pintel and Ragetti, who were actually intended to appear but were ultimately cut.
 * 19) The story is unoriginal as its about the main character trying to search for the Fountain of Youth, confronting the infamous pirate Blackbeard, a concept which has been done before many times in film.
 * 20) Sao Feng's map was destroyed when the purpose of its introduction in the previous film seemed to be to create a cool visual plot device that could be employed in future films.
 * 21) The Spaniard. A cool, mysterious individual who, along with his crew, is set up to be a genuine threat to snatch the Fountain of Youth out from under Blackbeard, Jack, and Barbossa... and he has no impact whatsoever on the plot, aside from serving as a pretense for Barbossa to go after Blackbeard (which, given the latter's notoriety and reputation for heinous crimes, was probably unnecessary anyway) and later tearing down the temple housing the Fountain in the name of God (which could easily have been rewritten as occurring during a battle between Blackbeard's crew and the British). To make it worse, the film briefly teased an intriguing sword-fight between the Spaniard and Blackbeard, only for that to amount to nothing more than a diversion so that Barbossa can slash Blackbeard with his poisoned blade, which could have easily been written in as occurring after a few minutes of dueling between the Spaniard and Blackbeard (or at the end as the latter was about to win). As it was, the entire Spanish contingent could have been removed from the film with minimal impact on the plot.
 * 22) The existence of Blackbeard's character and powers feels this way when framed within the events of the previous film, where pirate lords from all around the world were gathered in a council in 1729, eleven years after Blackbeard's fake death, yet nobody was aware of the survival of an absolutely legendary pirate whose presence would have been definitely needed in the war against the East India Trading Company - and to top it all off, the same film featured the presence of a particular character, Captain Edward Teague, who was implied to be the Pirateverse's version of Blackbeard himself (and who also has a brief appearance in this film, for extra weirdness). That this installment showcases Captain Edward Teach as a completely different character, who has also magical weapons that have little to envy to Tía Dalma's powers and whose origin is never explained, comes off as completely jarring.
 * 23) Many didn't like the way Barbossa was turned into a privateer for most of the movie, feeling like it took away the essence of the character (a pirate who was trying to gain his freedom turned into a Privateer who served the Crown). The fact that he has less screen time than in the first and third movies didn't help. Whereas others (including Geoffrey Rush) feel that this was a new and interesting facet of the character which also made sense with how Barbossa would handle this particular situation, and if anything he returned to his pirate ways at the end of the movie.
 * 24) False advertising: in several promos made by Johnny Depp for the film, Blackbeard's powers were frequently mentioned, such as the danger of his crew and the participation of the Zombies, however this, although it appears in the film, has a very minimal participation.
 * 25) Overall, this film has no impact whatsoever on the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, as the next sequel Dead Men Tell No Tales (which isn't any better) rarely ever references the entire events of this film with the intention of being a sequel to the original trilogy rather than this film, so skipping over this film wouldn't leave out any major plot details or anything.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Hans Zimmer's score is a best-selling point at all.
 * 2) Captain Jack Sparrow is still a likeable protagonist, as always.
 * 3) The humor is at its best here.
 * 4) We finally get to see King George II of Great Britain after just being mentioned in the previous films. Richard Griffith's performance as King George is also funny.
 * 5) Dame Judi Dench's cameo is pretty hilarious.
 * 6) Good acting, especially from Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow (as always), Penélope Cruz as Angelica and Ian McShane as Blackbeard.
 * 7) The romance subplot between Phillip Swift and Syrena is a good way to make up for the absence of Will's and Elizabeth's romance from the previous films.
 * 8) It's not a bad movie overall, just not a good Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
 * 9) The movie can be a great introduction to newcomers as you don't need to watch previous movies to enjoy this.
 * 10) It's the first PG-13 movie by Disney, which would help them in going to make a little more mature movies, such as Marvel movies.
 * 11) The mermaid song was amazing.

Critical and audience response
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides received mixed reviews from critics, audiences, and fans alike, with criticism for its plot, screenplay, direction, excessiveness, and lack of originality, but general praise for the acting, action sequences, musical score, visuals, and the shorter runtime. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 33% based on 259 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's shorter and leaner than the previous sequel, but this Pirates runs aground on a disjointed plot and a non-stop barrage of noisy action sequences.". Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, gives the film an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On IMDb, the film has an average user rating of 6.6/10. On Letterboxd, the film has an average rating of 2.7/5. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

The movie currently has a Google users rating of "89% of users liked this film".

Roger Ebert gave On Stranger Tides two out of four stars, saying that although the removal of Knightley and Bloom as well as the addition of Cruz were positive aspects, the film in general was "too much of a muchness" for him. Tom Long of The Detroit News gave a D+, saying that Jack Sparrow had "worn out his welcome". Despite the more linear plot, "the movie is still ridiculous". He found On Stranger Tides to be "precisely what you'd expect of the fourth installment of a movie based on an amusement park ride: a whole lot of noise, plenty of stunts and complete silliness." British film critic Mark Kermode gave the film an overwhelmingly negative review on his 5 Live show, saying "it's not as staggeringly misjudged as the third part, because it is just nothing, it is just a big empty nothing, whereas part three I think was an active atrocity, it's just nothing at all".

As with the previous films, the plot was criticized as incoherent and confusing. The Arizona Republic critic Bill Goodykoontz rated the film two out of five, stating that "the movie is a series of distractions tossed together in the hopes that they will come together in a coherent story. That never really happens." Online reviewer James Berardinelli considered the script "little more than a clothesline from which to dangle all of the obligatory set pieces", and USA Today's Claudia Puig found On Stranger Tides "familiar and predictable...often incoherent and crammed with pointless details."

Mike Scott from The Times-Picayune mentions that "while this latest chapter isn't quite sharp enough to restore the sense of discovery that made that first outing so darn exciting, it's enough to make up for most of the missteps that made the third one so darn arrgh-inducing." Writing for The A.V. Club, Tasha Robinson described On Stranger Tides as "a smaller film than past installments, by design and necessity", and felt that "the series has needed this streamlining" as the film "feels lightweight, but that's still better than bloated."

On Stranger Tides also had positive reviews; some critics found the film to be entertaining and well-made. Richard Roeper gave the film a B+, describing it as "the most fun installment since the first", calling the story "pure cartoon, but a lot easier to follow than the other sequels", and summing as "the franchise is getting tired, but Penelope energizes it." Along the same lines, Ann Hornaday of mh:rottenwebsites:The Washington Post gave the film three out of four stars, writing that it "feels as fresh and bracingly exhilarating as the day Jack Sparrow first swashed his buckle, infusing new reckless energy into a franchise that shows no signs of furling its sails". She said that Marshall "swiftly and without fuss delivers the action set pieces and eye-popping escapism" and praised Depp, Cruz, and McShane's performances. Ray Bennett from The Hollywood Reporter considered that Marshall "shows terrific flair with all the usual chases and sword fights, and he handles the 3D well", and welcomed Penélope Cruz's character, saying she "brings her Oscar-winning vivacity" and had "lively sexual tension" with Depp. Writing for The Globe and Mail, Rick Groen found the action scenes to range from "merely competent to tritely cluttered", but he was pleased with the overall result, calling McShane a "fresh villain" whose "stentorian tones are welcome anywhere". Variety's Andrew Barker considered the film derivative, but accessible. "It has nary an original idea and still doesn't make much sense, but it's lost all pretensions that it should". He praised Geoffrey Rush, stating that he "not only gets the funniest lines and reaction shots, but also starts to siphon away much of the roguish charm that used to be Depp's stock and trade."

Box office
On Stranger Tides earned $241.1 million in North America and $804.6 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.045 billion. It is the third-highest-grossing film of 2011 and the second most successful installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. On its worldwide opening weekend, it grossed $350.6 million, surpassing At World's End's $344 million opening as best in the series and ranking as the seventh-highest worldwide opening. It scored an IMAX worldwide opening-weekend record with $16.7 million (first surpassed by Transformers: Dark of the Moon).

It set records for the least time to reach $500, $600, and $700 million worldwide (in 10, 12 and 16 days, respectively). The first of these records was first surpassed by Dark of the Moon and the other two by mh:greatestmovies:Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. After 46 days in theaters (July 2, 2011), it became the eighth film in cinema history and the fourth film released by Walt Disney Studios to cross the $1-billion-mark. It set a record for the fastest Disney-distributed film to reach the milestone (first surpassed by Marvel's The Avengers) and it is the fifth-fastest film overall to achieve this.

During its Thursday-midnight showings, On Stranger Tides earned $4.7 million from 2,210 theaters, and $34,860,549 in total on its opening day. It earned $90.2 million on its opening weekend, topping the weekend box office, but earning much less than its two immediate predecessors (At World's End – $114.7 million and Dead Man's Chest – $135.6 million) and the directly preceding Johnny Depp spectacle (Alice in Wonderland – $116.1 million). 3D showings accounted for only 46% of its opening-weekend gross. It closed on September 29, 2011, with a $241.1 million gross, ranking as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2011 and the least profitable film of the franchise. However, it was the top-grossing movie during May 2011 (with $166.8 million by May 31).

Outside North America, On Stranger Tides is the sixth-highest-grossing film, the third-highest-grossing Disney film, the third-highest-grossing 2011 film and the highest-grossing film of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. It is the highest-grossing Pirates film in at least 58 territories.

During its opening day (Wednesday, May 18, 2011), On Stranger Tides made $18.5 million from 10 territories. It added 37 territories and $25.7 million on Thursday, for a two-day total of $44.2 million, and on Friday, it expanded to almost all countries, earning $46.2 million for a three-day total of $92.1 million. On its five-day opening weekend as a whole, it earned a then-record $260.4 million from 18,210 screens in more than 100 territories, in all which it reached first place at the box office. The record debut was surpassed later in the same summer season by Deathly Hallows Part 2. Earnings originating from 3-D showings accounted for 66% of the weekend gross, which was a much greater share than in North America. Its highest-grossing countries during its first weekend were Russia and the CIS ($31.42 million including previews), China ($22.3 million) and Germany ($20.53 million). It dominated for three weekends at the overseas box office despite competition from The Hangover Part II, mh:greatestmovies:Kung Fu Panda 2, and mh:greatestmovies:X-Men: First Class. It reached the $300, $400 and $500-million-mark at the box office outside North America in record time (7, 11 and 14 days respectively), records first surpassed by Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

On Stranger Tides set opening day records in both Russia (including the CIS) and Sweden. Subsequently, it set opening-weekend records in Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, Norway, Ukraine and Turkey, still retaining the record in Russia ($26.8 million) and Ukraine ($2.15 million). Its highest-grossing market after North America is Japan ($108.9 million), followed by China ($71.8 million) and Russia and the CIS ($63.7 million). It is the highest-grossing film of 2011 in Russia and the CIS, Austria, Ukraine, Greece, Portugal and Angola, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Estonia, and Latvia.

Accolades
The film was nominated for four Teen Choice Awards: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Actor, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Actress, and Villain. Its trailer and TV spot were nominated for Golden Trailer Awards. The film won Best Movie for Mature Audiences Award at the 2012 Movieguide Awards.

Videos
UagC9v7HMVo 0v4mcKZ5Nys 5FDtDGaX2IU LKED0bjr9Nk jXAMkdLg3og DyPclb1vRgQ n5aCtsqurDA KSUUHfX4k3M hMGoXfYV9qc -3EpXmjh3IM mvtTJkS6zGY XMzkbU5ScC8 41Ww7VQSz5A 8hStQPOl40I

Trivia

 * This was the first film that didn't get nominated for the Academy Awards.
 * This is the most expensive movie ever made even today, beating the record of it's predecessor.
 * This is the only movie in the series to be based on a book.
 * This is the first movie to have actual historical figures (King George II)
 * This is the first movie to not have Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, second if you count the short Tales of the code.
 * Both this and the next one were not directed by Gore Verbinski (the director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films).
 * This is the first Disney movie to be rated PG-13, mainly due to the mermaids being almost naked.
 * This is the second movie in the franchise to make $1 billion in revenue, with it, it also makes the franchise as the first movie series to have more than one movie with a $1 billion revenue.