On Stranger Tide

I read Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides roughly twenty years ago; I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides tonight. The book was excellent, nominated for a World Fantasy Award as well as a Locus Award. The movie was okay, which means it was better than PotC 2 and 3. I'd hoped the movie would follow the book a little more closely, but the book was a pretty high goal to live up to.

The similarities:

• people were after the Fountain of Youth
• Blackbeard had magical abilities
• pirates and zombies were involved

Good points:

• Blackbeard was well played
• The missionary's part was well written
• The discussions of faith and redemption
• The mermaids were well done
• Jack asking the quartermaster
• Jack's solution to the fountain problem

Points that bothered me:

• the first escape / chase was a bit lengthy
• Penelope Cruz is attractive but not a powerful actress
• Jack and the lighthouse--why did that supposed to work?
• Why were mermaids in the script in the first place? What do they have to do with the Fountain of Youth?
• The treetop escape. I can live with movie physics to some extent, but this was ridiculous
• The ship with the chalices...that just screamed "Disney needs a new ride and this is it"

The movie wasn't something I'd want to see twice but it was a fun couple of hours. The best thing about it might be that it will lead more people to read the book.