Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Today we decided to head down to the movie theater to check out "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides". Since it was playing in 3D at the IMAX theater, we thought we'd check it out... my first 3D movie since "Captain EO" at Disneyland.

Director: Rob Marshall

Main Actors: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, and Ian McShane

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) crosses paths with a woman from his past (Cruz), and he's not sure if it's love -- or if she's a ruthless con artist who's using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn't know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.


Rating: I loved this movie. As always, Johnny Depp does a fantastic job as Jack Sparrow... full of funny one liners and hilarious moves. I actually really liked Penelope Cruz in this movie as well - she and Johnny Depp shared some hilarious scenes. As always, Geoffrey Rush is a fantastic Barbosa and Ian McShane was wonderful as Blackbeard. I loved the introduction of the mermaids... they were definitely not what I expected!

Now, let's talk a little bit about this IMAX 3D thing. To give you a little bit behind the science, per Wikipedia, the IMAX 3D process uses two camera lenses to film, separated at the distance of the human eye. The two films are then projected at the same time, so you see 3D on the screen instead of 2D. Apparently, my eyes don't like this one bit - after all, they were lazered a couple years ago to make sure they each saw perfect 20/15 vision. Basically all that 3D did was make me feel nauseous for the entire 2 hours and 21 minutes of the movie. To be honest, I found it more distracting anyways - it's not quite 3D like in the real world... so I found myself thinking more about the 3D than being sucked into the movie. I think I would have enjoyed it a little more had I gone to see the regular IMAX or even the old fashioned "regular" movie.

That said, I definitely recommend this movie - I'm amazed that they were able to get a fourth movie out without it getting old... this one still felt fresh (especially because they mixed in new characters) and was even left open at the end for another!