I didn't think it would be possible to make a film as tedious as the last Pirates of the Caribbean but new director Rob Marshall has managed it. I guess it shouldn't have come as too much of a shock seeing as Marshall hasn't managed to make a decent film yet but I was at least hoping the absence of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley would have improved things. Sadly, On Stranger Tides still suffers from the same problems, namely a bloated and uninteresting story, too much Jack Sparrow and supporting characters not up to the job. Even though the film starts with a flurry of activity it still can't help but be terminally dull. The action has little consequence or sense of peril, instead it is just a procession of Jack Sparrow being Jack Sparrow and for me that act got old early on in the second film.

The problem with this character is that he is a larger than life supporting character not a leading man. With each subsequent film he is given more screen time and each minute he is on screen he becomes more and more irritating. Depp is a talented actor and whilst he may enjoy playing this character (no doubt the obscene amounts of money he has made from the four films helps) it really is time for it to be put to bed. After the action packed opening twenty minutes the film then plods along for another two hours with no sense of pace, excitement or tension as you get stuck on two ships with a bunch of characters you just can't care about. The special effects are as good as always but there is little sense of spectacle here and when you spend longer looking at your watch than the film itself you know that something is very, very wrong.