'Here's an idea, how about a good old-fashioned stoning? I'd kill to be stoned right now!'

Rating: 7/10 (10 December 2017)

The seemingly endless series of the Johnny Depp films PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN seems to be coming to an end with this 5th installment. For fourteen years this tale has been on screen, television, video games, Halloween costumes etc and this latest version – DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES – seems to have a prescient subtitle! The story is more reflective this time round (we see the initial seeds for the series as we face the past), most of the cast members remain (if only for a brief moment for some like Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom), some fresh actors enter (such as the very welcome Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario), the mainstay actors remain (Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush et al), and the newest aspect is the increasing imposing use of CGI graphics.
But on to the story as written by Jeff Nathanson based on characters created by Terry Rossio, Ted Elliot, Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert and directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) searches for the trident of Poseidon while being pursued by an undead sea captain Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) and his crew and finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis (Captain Salazar) escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea...including him. Captain Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.
Oh, there is more detail to the tale and the actors employed are excellent. Nigel Phelps designed the production, Paul Cameron is in charge of cinematography and the musical score is by Geoff Zanelli. The movie is a bit long in tooth (a slow excess of two hour) and for the most part the CGI effects are the stars, but for those addicted to the Pirates series this final (hopefully) version will satisfy. For others it is a visual hallucinatory delight.