The Black Pearl Sails Again, As "Dead Men Tell No Tales" Is A Satisfying-Though Very Flawed- "Pirates" Sequel

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2017)

"Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" is the 5th movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise in which a crew of undead pirates led by Captain Salazar escape from the Devil's Triangle, hellbent on killing every pirate at sea. As they seek the Trident of Poseidon, they don't know that Jack Sparrow has been roped in to this adventure as well.
I really like the Pirates movies. The first one is no doubt the best. Everyone can say what they want about the sequels, but watching the sequels, even the fourth one, which I think is the best sequel (I know I'm in the minority there) makes me entertained. At this point in the series, I'm not expecting to "blown out of the water" with these movies. I just expect to kick my feet up and have a good time. For the most part, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" succeeds in this aspect. However, as of this moment, it is my least favorite of the sequels.
It felt like Johnny Depp was just playing Johnny Depp in this movie. It seems like the writers have run out of ideas for good ole Captain Jack. The first action scene of the movie features a bank heist involving Jack Sparrow, and watching it I couldn't help to think if the character would do this. It seemed really out of character. However, with the character of Jack, he was relegated to supporting character again, which was a relief, because I felt the sequels tried too hard to make him the main character. I also liked seeing Jack when he was past his prime. It shows too. Just count how many times in this movie the character is drunk. There was some backstory we got with him involving Salazar, and that was one of the most interesting part of the movie.
Javier Bardem was like spitting his lines. It was hard to understand him at times. For the most part, it's solid. But I don't know what he was going for by doing that or if he was told to do that. The character of Salazar though was a menacing villain, and the fact he was hellbent on killing every pirate at sea added more depth to his character.
The scene stealer in this though was definitely Barbossa. The character was given some of his best material to date, not quite matching the material from Curse Of The Black Pearl. But it was very effective. He is always the cool anti-hero of this series and this movie continues that trend. he also has some emotional scenes in there as well, which made me care about Barbossa a lot more in this one than in the past sequels.
I really enjoyed the concept and the story. Both worked well and people are gonna say that this is too convoluted, which at times, yes it can be, but never to the point of being super complicated like much of the third one was, something this one and the fourth one did a very good job of avoiding.
The action scenes were fun. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING in this series will ever top the three way sword fight on the wheel in Dead Man's Chest, but i thought the action scenes in this one were slightly more memorable than the ones in the fourth one. The only one I didn't like was the bank heist to open up the film. Just felt it was out of place for a Pirates film. No glaring issues with CGI in these scenes either. The action was fun, exciting, and a beauty to look at.
This movie though had quite a few missteps. For instance, Orlando Bloom is back. The is not a spoiler since he was in the trailer, but they could have done so much with Will in this movie, but he's relegated to two scenes, where he does nothing. This is the character for me that had the best story arc throughout the series, and you could have given him something even more to close out that story arc. However, the arc does come full circle in sweet, emotional scene at the end that really gave me the feels.
There were just other scenes in the movie that I felt were unnecessary. One example is a scene in the middle of the movie where Jack meets a pirate from his past and that pirate wants him to marry someone. Like why? Did we need that? It did nothing to advance the plot, and also felt out of place.
The two new leads, the hot chick from Maze Runner and Brendan Thwaites had good chemistry, but there wasn't enough interaction between the two of them to actually get me to care about them. I cared about their ultimate goals, but not so much about them as characters or their budding romance which was trying to harken back to Will and Elizabeth's romance in the first one and I really didn't buy it. Other than their personal goals there was nothing to latch onto these characters with. Their actors were fine. They weren't great, but not terrible. Serviceable.
The plot does get a little heavy handed at times, as it falls into the problem the fourth one had. Plot threads come out of nowhere, and everyone randomly has the same goal, which is to acquire the Trident. There were times where it just felt like it was too much.
"Dead Men Tell No Tales" for me is the weakest entry in the series, but it isn't atrocious. It's a fun summer movie. Just let this be the end, no matter what that post credits scene teased.
I am going to give "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" a 6.5/10