Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blu-ray Review

• 15th Sep 2011

God Bless the home cinema format.  Never more so was I happy to see it than with this recent Pirates release on Blu-ray. Why?  Cause the version I saw here was 2D!!!! (All hip and hurray at once).

Yes Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was released theatrically in 3-D. The screening I saw of the film was as such, and AS SUCH! I ended up not being able to see a bloody thing. The film is darkly shot and dimly lit, and with the glasses on top of this dimming the experience further – it was kind of a nightmare watching the film. Like watching a bad pirate film on your PC at home (There is a multi-levelled joke in there somewhere. But I must press on!)

So Pirates 4 sees Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally and Geoffrey Rush return from the previous films in their respective roles. The hunt is now on for the fountain of youth as alluded to in the closing of the third film. This time round the supporting characters are a bit sadly forgettable. Particularly one Penelope Cruz. The person with best stab at making any impression is Ian McShane as Blackbeard, but he arrives a bit late and is given very little to do to back up her reputation as one of the worst you’d even hope to meet.

The good news is that this film is a bit shorter than the previous films, it isn’t half-way as confusing or mind-numbingly boring as the third film and it zips along with enough mis-en-Scene and production imagination to keep fans of the franchise happy. A few stand out scenes includes Blackbeard’s entrance and an encounter with some man hungry Mermaids.

We are still nowhere near as on form as the first film, but it still entertains. Diminished expectations have probably helped this film be the massive hit it is (it’s officially one of the top 10 films to have broke a billion at the box office (as did the second film when it came out) so there is clearly a thirst for more. Let’s hope they up the ante a little and write something a bit more fun next time round. But for now – this will do.

The 2D Blu-ray I recommend for clarity! The extras are actually a bit on the minimal side. You’d think with pirates in general being such a fascinating subject that they could put together some decent docs on the subject. Instead we get a few splatterings. A blooper reel and a couple of Lego animations. There is also commentary from director Rob Marshall and one of the producers who are very happy with both the 3D and every performance on screen.

Steven Hurst