Dead Men Tell No Tales; Odd Pirates Movies Tell Good Tales

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2017)

I was beyond worried about this movie after because of the fourth. Usually when you make another movie after a more or less lackluster movie, it's going to be worse (At Worlds End is an exception to this because it was direct sequel to Dead Man's Chest). I'm very happy that Dead Men Tell No Tales does not follow being worse than On Stranger Tides. In my usual review format I'll go over the Good, The Bad (Meh), and The Ugly(Bad).
The Good: The opening scene before the title pops up sets the pace and major plot point of the movie. From a young Henry finding Will and promising to break his curse with the Trident of Poseidon as well as finding Captain Jack. As well as being greeted by the movies main villain Captain Salazer.
In typical Pirates fashion each character, from Henry, Captain Jack, and Carina all work together for the same goal, but driven to it for very alternative reasons.
The movies pacing was excellently, not really giving a dull moment; and giving back stories of both Salazer and Captain Jack in perfect places, while hiding Carina's back story long enough to make the realization of who she is a very shocking twist.
When you think of the Pirated movies, two things pop into your head: Captain Jack and the musical score. Needless to say, the musical score is on point, making the 5th Pirates movie still feel like an epic seafaring adventure.
The last bit of Good comes in with another guest appearance. Seeing Will pop up at the beginning, I was hoping to see Erlizabeth Swann pop up sometime; and following the pacing her brief appearance was nearly tear jerking. Especially because it came very near the end of the movie.
The Bad: Captain Jack was funny, and everything he did had a purpose; however, it seemed as if Captain Jack had fallen very far from grace. A once drunk, but still brilliant, formidable, and Captain character, we see more of a drunkard almost embarrassment of the original Captain Jack. He finally redeems himself at the end, but being the 5th Pirates movie, Captain Jack shouldn't need a sub plot of redeeming himself; or they could have executed it better. He's still funny and still very much himself, but his character let me down a lot.
This also brings us to Captain Barbossa. His introduction and how he carried himself for most of the film made me feel like he wasn't himself. The banter between Jack and him were done well and Barbossa was able to be the same Captain Barbossa I know and love. A very well done sub plot of Carina being his daughter, the clear anguish he showed for knowing but not telling, and him never fully admitting he was her father by telling her his tattoo of Carina it meant treasure.
Even though the pacing was well done, there were a few scenes that were needed to move the plot forward, but they felt empty; such as when Jack almost being forced to Pig Kelly's sister. Not only did it seem like we should recognize the characters, and we didn't, it was only used to get Back and Barbossa together and bring back the Pearl.
The Ugly: The sea battles with cannons and boat invasions were very boring; especially because Salazar and his crew were ghosts so there was nothing that could be done in any type of defense.
They used a lot of boat coming out from being submerged... A lot. It is a very cool effect, but when done excessively it makes the events boring and painstakingly long to endure.
There are more characters I can count that show up that are apparently very important, given a nice amount of screen time, but no explanation of really who they are and why they're doing what they are. It's not like an unimportant bar tender who takes Jack's compass who doesn't reappear throughout the film.
Also, Jack giving his compass up for a drink felt so unlike Captain Jack Sparrow. I understand it was more to have Henry find Jack and seeing that he isn't the pirate he thought of; but a character as established of Jack shouldn't have changed so drastically.
There are a few times of lines being repeated throughout the film that were more cringe worthy than funny or awe inspiring. Finally, the death of Barbossa felt so rushed. Yes, he saved himself to save his daughter, but someone as big and very well known as Barbossa should have been a bigger, longer, heart breaking, and meaningful death. And Jack's line of "Pirates life Hector..." didn't come off as sincere as it should have.
Finally the conclusion, although heart warming of Will coming home, greeting Henry in a very fatherly hasn't seen son in a long time fashion, to Elizabeth showing up and him running to her; forgetting Henry even existed. I loved the Elizabeth cameo; however they could have extended the scene a little more to not only truly build the father/son bonding, but the suspense of thinking of A. Will Elizabeth make a cameo or B. Did something happen to Elizabeth?
The Verdict: Dead Men Tell No Tales does a superior job on introducing new Characters and developing them into lovable characters before the film's closure. Again, it takes you on a seafaring adventure you'll be happy to watch a second time. A few Pirates veterans had major character changes before the film even started, so it actually was weird to see them turn back into themselves. But the movie has the pacing, characters, story, and cameo's to make it my 2nd favorite Pirates movie.
8/10