POTC: OST (No Spoilers)

Do you know, it's a bit off-putting when a sequence of films has enough entries to qualify for its own acronyms. It starts to feel as though perhaps the enterprise would be best served as a serial on TV: weekly episodes of Cap'n Jack Sparrow and Crüe seeking this or that odd treasure from piratical lore. Mind you, that way Hanna Barbera lies, and madness.

There's something about the POTC franchise, however, that wouldn't translate to the smaller* screen, and that something is almost certainly the pay-and/or-royalty check that Johnny Depp would have to get for his usual fun, rambling, charming, and roguish rapscallion performance. Say what you will about the romance between yon Orlando and Keira (and believe me, it's been said), but the real draw of the franchise is watching Depp inhabit the role of inebriated Keith RichardsCap'n Jack. And, in OST, inhabit it he does.

The movie's a ripper, a load of fun, and a decent ride. Like the original ride, it doesn't bear too much close inspection, mind, and, while it stands on its own, being somewhat familiar with the first three of the series will enrich the experience. We saw it sans 3D and were almost certainly better off for it; I can't think of anything in the film that needed (or would have benefitted) from a third visual dimension... though the plot/characters/etc. could have used more depth.

If you like the movie but wish there was more to the story, you might want to check out the book On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, listed in the end credits as the book the idea of the movie was "Suggested from." The similarities are really quite few (Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard, incidental magic), but Powers creates a fascinating world with rather well-thought-out rules for everyday magic (loads of Sympathy; a smattering of the Law of Contagion; plenty of negotiations with odd powers), and his research on pirates and how they lived is spot-on. Powers is also one of my favorite authors, so there's that, too.

* Not that much smaller, mind, given the distance from the couch; crikey, you could almost count the pores on Keith Richards' face if you brought this to some home screens these days.