Mediocre in all aspects, even where it ought to shine

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 2017)

This movie was frankly quite disappointing, a half hearted and soulless re-tread of the elements that made Pirates a hit in the first place. That's not even to mention the problems with pacing, overall series consistency, and frankly dismal writing which tanked the performance of actors we know can do far better (i.e Javier Bardem).
However that has all already been said, what hasn't really been said is that even where the film has no real reason not to be great, it somehow manages to mess up. Specifically the CGI, which is just used terribly. That's not to say it isn't expensive CGI, I'm sure it's some of the best money can buy, but as the old saying goes "you can't buy sense". Sense is still something badly needed in the use of special effects, and the film demonstrates again and again whoever was in charge simply didn't have it, or just didn't care to. Instead of focusing on only a few really good uses or only where it would shine, the screen is awash with CGI. There's CGI in the foreground, CGI middlegrounds, CGI backgrounds, CGI enemies, CGI on the actors, CGI in place of actors. It's everywhere and more often than not it's not used well.
For instance, often the film composites physical props against CGI ones, and the contrast is somewhat jarring. The costume work and the props have wonderful attention to detail going on, but the CGI just doesn't quite measure up when they are side by side. Other times there's a CGI middle ground which just looks off, mostly in places they don't expect you to be looking like during action scenes the quality of middle ground CGI really degrades. Occasionally there was a scene or two where they used CGI for something incredibly trivial like a simple prop causing it to move in an uncanny way. There were moments where they used CGI and for whatever reason it just looked off, like the zombie shark scene where the sharks almost looked like they were taken from one of those low budged shark themed Sci-fi channel movies instead of modeled and detailed by professionals. One final example of what in my opinion is poor use of CGI is the main baddie the undead pirate hunter Salizar, who's hair is supposed to look as if it where moving in the water, but all it reminded me of is what happens in a video game when the soft body hair physics go on the fritz. It didn't help that at times it just really didn't get composited onto him exactly right and seemed to sort of be hovering near his head like some vengeful undead kelp which just happened to attach itself to the capitán's head.
Now I'm not categorically against CGI as some are, I think it can do wonders, and it's not like it's all bad. Most of the locations in the film like the sea and most of the islands were done in CGI and it's quite well done. The water effects and the island near the end of the movie were pretty nice too. The problem is the majority of the use of CGI in the film is not done well.
I'll admit, for the average viewer it probably doesn't matter at all, but if you are like me and you appreciate good use of special effects you will find this film disappointing even in this respect.