Striking $90.2 million in its first week, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” premiered in all theatres on May 20 presenting the backgrounds of New Orleans folk tale Blackbeard.
Blackbeard is an original New Orleans folk tale about a merciless Pirate that practiced Voodoo and ambushed ships. He was also believed to be “the devils incarnate.” His ship was made of wood and skeleton bones (as shown in the movie), with a crew made up of survivors of the ships he would high jack. Michelle Cervantes, a long time Pirates fan loves the way they depicted Black Beard in the movie.
“You think when you hear the name Black Beard that it’s some cheesy kid’s tale,” Cervantes said. “But when you actually watch the movie you’ll see all the details they put into the script. I loved the way they depicted him; it was truly legendary.”
Mermaids were also included in the movie sequence as not the friendly creatures of legend but as vicious animals with human- like qualities. Almost relating to the siren folk-tales, the mermaids lore their victims by beauty not by sound they then drag their pray to the bottom of the ocean and feast on them. Tawnie De la Cruz says that these monsters were the only part of the movie that she didn’t like.
“The mermaids looked too much like vampires to me,” De la Cruz said. “They were beautiful and I liked how they were perceived but I just didn’t like their fangs.”
Adriana Rocha believes the plot line and the use of historic events made the movie brilliant. Spain searched for the fountain of youth in the sixteenth century and was depicted the same in the movie. Adventuring for the fountain of youth Jack Sparrow and Black Beard run into much difficulty with the Spanish, as a “mission for God” they seek to destroy the fountain of youth because “God is the only one that can grant immortality.”
“The plot was really good,” Rocha said. “Since it’s the fourth movie many people would probably think it was boring but the fact that they included actual events from history.”
A00000lso starring the movie are Penelope Cruz as Black Beard’s daughter, Kevin McNally as Joshamme Gibbs and a surprise character from the first movie. Not starring in the movie are the actors for William Turner and Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Swan. With a run –on story line in the last scene there may be a chance of having a fifth movie.