Johnny Depp's loopy Jack Sparrow returns sans Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. This time, the Fountain of Youth is the MacGuffin. If the first two Pirates sequels suffered from too many characters and an over bloated nature, On Stranger Tides suffers from not really going into the plot threads it sets up at all. True, this movie is considerably shorter than the last installment, but that doesn't necessarily make it better. Taking over the reigns (from a departing Gore Verbinski) is Chicago helmer Rob Marshall and while the movie looks pretty (at times, too pretty--it could have used a little more grit), it lacks the all out joy that made the first film such a pleasure to watch.

Depp does his best, but for whatever reason, his Jack Sparrow feels like a pale carbon copy of the Sparrow we first fell in love with. The love story between he and Penelope Cruz feels tepid at best and the final act of the film is surprisingly uneventful. The movie looks good, Geoffrey Rush is splendid as the shifty Barbossa, and a spectacularly conceived mermaid sequence in the mid section brings On Stranger Tides to life...momentarily. In the end though, the writing is dull, and Marshall is unable to bring fire to the lackluster action scenes (save for the previously mentioned mermaid sequence). On Stranger Tides is passable entertainment but it lacks the sweep and grandeur of the previous installments.