Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Rob Marshall’s 136 minute entry borrows the title of Tim Powers’s 1987 novel "On Stranger Tides" and its fountain of youth, little else. Terry Rossio put it plainly: neither Jack Sparrow nor Barbossa is in the book, so he would not call it an adaptation. Disney bought the rights in April 2007. At release this was the most expensive film ever made, on a net budget around 378.5 million dollars. Even so, post production ran 22 weeks against the roughly 40 an effects heavy picture this size normally takes, which explains why it leans on land sequences, swordplay and jungle pursuit rather than fleet engagements. Its one large creature set piece is the mermaid attack, closer to horror than adventure: eight model actresses played the mermaids out of the water, while 22 synchronised swimmers and stuntwomen worked in motion capture suits, with a digital layer adding sharper teeth. Gore Verbinski was unavailable because of "Rango", and Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom declined to return, feeling their characters were finished. The cost shows: Depp now carries both the comedy and the emotional line alone. Who it is for: viewers completing the series and anyone who likes practical swordplay. Who it is not for: people wanting monster spectacle on the scale of the kraken; there is exactly one sequence at that size.