Parent Review of the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Our family went to a sneak preview last night to see the new movie, Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides.
 
Our family rated it like this:

Parents  -  B
12 year old boy  -  A-
15 year old boy  -  A+
9 year old boy  -  A-
7 year old boy  -  A

We saw the movie in Digital 3D and we did not feel like the 3D was really worth the extra money for this movie. There were only a few scenes where they used it effectively.  Most of the time I was wondering why I had to wear these uncomfortable 3D glasses.  If you do not need to spend extra money, then enjoy the movie without the 3D experience. A few of the sword scenes were cool in 3D but otherwise, not so much.

A few warnings for those parents who have little kids!
1. This movie is LONG, almost 2 and a half hours long! Your kids will get antsy halfway through the movie and will be bored and want to go home.
2.  There are two scary parts.  Skip the rest of this warning below if you do not want a spoiler alert!

1. The first scene of the movie has a guy getting lifted up in a net, and when they open the net up the guy screams and my kids jumped!
2. The mermaid scene is very scary.  You know it is coming when the pirates reach the bay and they turn on the search lights and take out the nets and try to catch the mermaids.  I know, mermaids are not usually scary, but this scene is!!

3. There is very little if any bad language! They mostly use Pirate language.  There are also no inappropriate scenes of sex or nudity.  There is some violence and lots of guns and swords and people do get shot.

Whatever you do, do not get to the movie late! The first 45 minutes are amazing! Tons of chase scenes, exciting escapes from jail, we were all on the edge of our seats.  The premise of the movie is that three different groups are all trying to get first to the Fountain of Youth.  The three groups are Captain Jack and Blackbeard, an English Boat with Jack's old nemesis and the Spaniards.  Blackbeard has a prophecy that he will be killed by a man with one leg.  In order to save his life, Blackbeard needs to get to the Fountain of Youth first.  Most of the movie centers on who will get to the Fountain first?  Overall the acting and excitement is A+ throughout.  I think if they had cut a little of the middle part, and made it just 2 hours it would have been perfect.  Leave me a comment if you see the movie and tell me what your kids think of it! You can read my 7 year old sons review here, monkeyitouchman.blogspot.com
and stay tuned for our review of Kung Fu Panda 2 tomorrow.