On Stranger Tides escalates from there to closing mega-thrills so determinedly spiced that your palate is left almost jaded." Jack Adrian says that "Tim Powers has further refertilized the Sabatini swashbuckler," and describes the novel as a skillful blend of "high seas adventure with sorcery and black magic." Kim Newman based the name of a vampire in his "Anno Dracula" series on the main character of "On Stranger Tides". Ron Gilbert has been widely quoted that the "Monkey Island" series of adventure games was inspired by Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. However, he stated in a blog that the ride was mainly
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides critic Mark Kermode gave the film an overwhelmingly negative review on his "5 Live" show, saying "it's not as staggeringly misjudged as the third part, because it is just nothing, it is just a big empty nothing, whereas part three I think was an active atrocity, it's just nothing at all". As with the previous films, the plot was criticized as incoherent and confusing. "The Arizona Republic" critic Bill Goodykoontz rated the film two out of five, stating that "the movie is a series of distractions tossed together in the hopes that they will come together in a coherent story.