Johnny Depp, who was once quirky and slightly mysterious, has not been the particular and peculiar movie star he was once in some time. At Walt Disney Company's D23 Convention, Depp showed up in full Captain Jack Sparrow gear to do character schtick and promote the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean film that's already in the works, according to The Los Angeles Times. The first film was downright incredible and glorious fun. The second film was pretty good, though it had its really stupid moments. The third film had some cool things, but also a lot of hip mumbo-jumbo that didn't exactly fly. The characters grew weaker, not stronger, which is a terrible problem in a trilogy.
The fourth film in the Pirates franchise is supposedly titled Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. However, it will probably not feature Kiera Knightly (lame) but it may include some steam punk themes (rad). As fun as an adventure of Sparrow and Barbossa searching for the Fountain of Youth may sound, character spin-offs in franchises don't usually work out. The momentum in the franchise sails have ultimately died off, it seems, and this would be like putting a motor in the water and calling it classic sailing.
I think producer Jerry Bruckheimer is seriously pushing it too hard. Up until the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise came along, Bruckheimer's previously highest-grossest film was Beverly Hills Cop in 1984. And, when it comes to sequels and schtick, Bruckheimer should remember critic Roger Ebert's line from the review of Beverly Hills Cop II: "What is comedy? That's a pretty basic question, I know, but Cop II never thought to ask it."
Maybe the moral of all this is that Jerry Bruckheimer should not be a total douche.
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