A Gigantic and Epic feeling Finishing Blow, although Overcomplicated

Rating: 9/10 (9 March 2019)

Since the first movie, none of the other Pirates movies seem to have had the same level of quality, according to the general public and critics. In my opinion, this is a big surprise. I like the first one the least out the trilogy, and absolutely LOVE the third one. It is funny, emotional, tense, with great characters and production design, action, music, and visual effects. Basically it is doing everything right for being entertaining. Is it perfect? No, but no movie is.
Acting:
Johnny Depp as Jack was here at the top of his game as usual. By now, you are pretty used to the ticks and routines of the character, but he still makes you hold your sides with laughter and baffles you with his scheming skills and mastery of improvisation. It saddens me that he completely lost this in Dead Men Tell no Tales. Jack's arc is surprisingly well fleshed out in the overblown screenplay, and Johnny sells it excellently.
Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are both doing great, with each character having their own personal stakes in this, that extracts a heavy toll on them. It is mostly through body language however, since their line delivery is not that smoot a lot of time.
Bill Neighy is back as Davy Jones and BOY is he good! To this day this is a mo-cap performance that impresses me even more than Gollum sometimes. The character is very deep and considering how cruel he is, you actually sympathize with him a lot of times. Bill delivered a fantastic villainous performance that will always be remembered.
Tom Hollander as Beckett gets a larger role here than in Dead Men's Chest, and this gives him the opportunity to flesh out the cold and calculating persona a lot more. He is perfect as the slimy, cruel, yet very smart and composed little man, and although he has very little character he is really fun to watch.
Geoffry Rush as Barbossa is absolutely gold. Seeing him actually play the good guy here gives great opportunities to play off with Johnny Depp, and the scenes that they share are absolutely hilarious and full of character. Geoffry fully embraces the wacky and ragged pirate that Barbossa is, and gives his most enjoyable performance to date.
Chow-Yun Fat as Sao Feng is a bit of a missed opportunity: the guy is a great actor and absolutely nails the creepy yet noble pirate lord that Sao Feng is. He gets really too small of a role in this movie, unfortunately, and could have been utilized better.
Jack Davenport as Norrington is also kind of wasted potential here. His character in the first movie was actually pretty likable, and in the second movie he was pretty great because of the new place his character was in. In this movie, he still has an arc, but it is one that is very quickly resolved and Norrington doesn't really play a further significant part, which feels again like a missed chance.
The rest of the cast is absolutely great as all different types of pirates and scoundrels, including the mo-cap cast for Davy Jone's crew, and a testament how much effort was stuck in this movie to make the world feel alive.
Direction:
Gore Verbinski has been the director for all the three movies, and he once again delivers on both emotional and spectacle level. Not all of the scenes feel as realistic as they should be, with too much of the wackiness taking over, but overall Gore can be proud of this.
Cinematography:
Darius Wolzki, who shot Dead Men's Chest as well, holds nothing back in this movie, with great use of color filters, shot positioning and lighting. This might be his best looking movie yet.
Plot:
This is were most of the complaining comes in. This movie is VERY long, and even with all that runtime, a ton of story and character arcs are crammed in. The movies is way more complicated than it needs to be, and although I could follow it pretty easily, I can imagine that a lot of people don't like how much they need to think with this type of blockbuster. That being said, a lot still falls into place pretty neatly, and the dialogue is often hilarious and entertaining to listen to.
Music: Hans Zimmer, who is great at delivering truly spectacular scores that sound both exhilarating and emotional, has given us his best Pirates score yet, elaborating his previous themes and giving new pieces that are great to listen to even when you are not watching the movie.
Production Design:
This is in my eyes the very best part about this movie: every set and location feels handmade, even when it's obviously digital. It is full of props and the decoration looks stunning on the ships and on-land locations.
Costumes and Make-Up:
Just like the production design, a ton of work was put into this to make every actor look exactly like what he is supposed to be. This deserves an academy award for sure.
Sound:
Not much to say on this, I think that the music is more important overall, but there are nice unique sounds sprinkled throughout with the "weirder" scenes(one full of little crabs in particular)
VFX:
Just like Dead Men's Chest and Curse of the Black Pearl, this movie reaches to new heights in the digital department, with incredible motion capture and scenery that makes your jaw drop in the massive action sequences and other locations.
Editing:
This movie efficiently hops between a LOT of characters and plot lines while still making it feel like a smooth and coherent ride(at least for me). Particulary the cutting between big action and small comedic/character moments are great to watch.
Tone:
This movie strikes a great balance between grim drama and hilarious comedy, in addition to having big tense action inbetween. Pretty much everything that needs to hit the mark, does so.
General Concensus:
While the story really didn't need to be that stuffed and difficult, pretty much everything else about this movie is great, and an absolute blast from start to finish.(Don't forget the beautiful post-credit scene)