Fourth Pirates of the Caribbean Film Receives Budget Cuts

While it would be easy for me to comment that the fourth film of the Pirates of the Caribbean (POTC) franchise faces rough seas ahead with its budget cuts, I am way too advanced of a critic to use such a nautical term that feels as slippery as a fish out of water. Instead, I aim for something for cynical such as mentioning that the next POTC film On Stranger Tides will be filmed on stranger tides indeed: The tides of London and Hawaii to be precise.

POTC lost more than a third of its funding, resulting in location changes, casting cuts, a reduced filming schedule, and possibly fewer special effects for the next film. The loss of previous POTC films Gore Verbinski is a shocking casualty to the budget cuts because this was his movie franchise baby. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly are also cut from the next film, but that is no big loss since their characters kind of wore out their welcome during the second movie. Jerry Bruckheimer is still the producer and he takes budget cuts like a chicken takes getting its head cut off. At least Johnny Depp will continue his role as Captain Jack Sparrow for the film.

Perhaps these budget cuts are a good opportunity to take a look back at the POTC franchise. I admit that the first film was a delightful masterpiece based on a Disneyland attraction that always lulled me to sleep whenever I rode it. Introducing a quirky antihero like Jack Sparrow gave Disney an appealing character for both teenage males who adore action and teenage females who adore dreamboats. Had they made more films featuring Jack Sparrow, I would have been all for that.

But it was during the second movie where the POTC franchise began to lose its luster. Maybe it was the overuse and over budget of the Kraken special effects that bored audiences save for the visual eye candy aficionados. Perhaps it was the focus on the generic love triangle between Jack, Will, and Elizabeth that ended on a disappointing cliffhanger. The third film of the franchise was desperately throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping to find something that would stick. They threw Chow Yun Fat hoping for some Asian appeal but failing that they promptly killed him-spoiler alert. Instead of ending with a bang, the first POTC trilogy ended with a whimper.

Maybe it is simply time to shelve POTC while good memories of it remains. Hardly any film franchise is good going into its third entry and the fourth with its cheaper budget will not help things much. But then again, maybe this fourth film will hit the ground running...

...Straight into a brick wall.