Do We Really Need a Pirates 4?

A couple weeks ago, Jerry Bruckheimer let the news slip that getting a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie made was high priority on Disney's to-do list. He told HitFix:

"I think for Disney it will mostly be 'Pirates,' obviously," Bruckheimer says. "That's a great franchise for them and for us too. Beloved, with a great character and Johnny's really excited about coming back to Captain Jack."

I love the Pirates franchise as much as anybody, but do I want to see Jack and the gang return a fourth time? No. Because the punchlines are now stale, the happy surprise of Johnny Depp's performance is now gone, and there's no story left to tell. What now? Captain Jack sails to America to partake in the Boston Tea Party?

Pirates 3 was a near-disaster with no discernable plot than meandered on for nearly three hours (if anyone can explain the sequence with the crabs to me, please get in touch). Granted, it also made a damn lot of booty, so of course Disney execs would want to keep milking their cash cow. Except that to make a fourth film feels cheap. And kind of desperate. And would taint the legacy of the first three films.

But finally, Jerry Bruckheimer is an awesome producer who's created plenty of great, entertaining, financially successful movies thus far - and many that I would count among my favorite films of all time. And I'm sure the upcoming "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" and "Sorcerer's Apprentice" will make plenty of money. So instead of going back to the well, why not keep creating these new movies/franchises we can all be excited about? It would certainly be better than tarnishing the Pirates franchise with an unnecessary fourth-quel.