Review – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales marks the fifth, that’s right, FIFTH, film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. To be honest, I am not a fan of this franchise. I loved the original 2003 film, which was an exciting, original adventure and one of Johnny Depp’s best performances as the now legendary Captain Jack Sparrow. However, the proceeding films all failed to muster up any of the magic from the original, causing three boring, redundant films. Now, while Dead Men Tell No Tales isn’t the sensation of the original, it is far and away the best Pirates movie since, as it offers up a number of cool action sequences, an all-star cast, and a new sense of adventure.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales starts with Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) searching for the trident of Poseidon so that he can break the curse that has kept his father on the Flying Dutchman since Henry was a child. In order to get to the trident, Henry must team up with Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), an intelligent astronomer who is taken for a witch, and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and his gang of misfits. Teaming up with these two, however, brings others along the way, including British solders, Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), and one of Sparrow’s old nemesis, Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), who is out for revenge.
What makes this Pirates movie more successful than the previous sequels is the direction from Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. These guys are relatively new to the cinematic scene, with only a handful of movies to their credit and none of them even close to this scale. What they brought to the table was a freshness to the franchise and new set of eyes and ideas. Usually a CGI-heavy franchise, Rønning and Espen brought a lot of practical effects to the table, mixing it with the usual CGI to give us some really fun action set pieces.
The movie as a whole felt more grounded and tighter. Usually these Pirates films run over two and a half hours, but this one comes in at just barely over two hours, which helped keep the story simple and interesting without dragging. A lot of things are rather predictable, however, but because the movie is so straight forward, it doesn’t ruin the whole experience. Rønning and Espen have a bright future ahead of them.
The cast offers up some good performances along with some ‘meh’ performances. Javier Bardem is sensational as Captain Salazar, even if he does drool like The Penguin in Batman Returns (1992). He is menacing, ruthless, and offers up some great monologs. It’s nice to see Geoffrey Rush not phoning it in in his fifth appearance in this franchise. Captain Barbosa starts off as a minor character at first, but really owns the last half of the film. I am a sucker for seeing great actors go head-to-head and seeing Bardem and Rush go at it is nothing short of great. Thwaites isn’t very impressive as Henry, though his stilted personality is very reminiscent of Orlando Bloom’s Will, so I guess he nailed it? Scodelario could literally be the offspring of Kiera Knightly, as she plays a a smart, strong, sarcastic woman who wants more for her life. And Johnny Depp has officially worn out every ounce of originality Captain Jack Sparrow had. He has now become a comedic side gag with is usual schtick of drunken slurring and getting into whacky shenanigans. Some of it is amusing, but most of it misses. It’s time to put this character to rest, Mr. Depp.
I don’t know if this will be final film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but if it is, it ends a nice note. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a fun, exciting, predictable adventure flick featuring some really solid performances from Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush. This has a shot at being the surprise of the summer and should be the final journey for Captain Jack Sparrow.
MY RATING – 2.5/4
Did you see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales? What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.