The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film sets the franchise even with two good and two lousy. Try as we might, we can't see any movie in a vacuum. This is most evident with a franchise film. Is there a way to critically approach Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides without contextualizing it among the previous three films? Is there a point? This movie does not exist on its own, nor could it. To say, then, that On Stranger Tides is good "for a Pirates film" is a reasonable analysis, even if film studies purists may turn their nose at such a turn of phrase. But I think we all know what I mean. The Pirates franchise is a curious one, indeed. For something that has greatly altered what we wear on Halloween and what embarrassing uncles like to quote, it's been an intellectual property with a rather noticeable problem: only one of the three previous movies is any good. The third one, in fact, was bloody...