MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’
(Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films)
By Lucas Allen

Captain Jack Sparrow is back in what could be as advertised as the final adventure in this popular film series adapted from a well-known Disneyland attraction starring everybody’s favorite rascal pirate.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is an attempt to bring the series back to its spiritual roots when Gore Verbinski started it back in 2003. Some people may not care about the franchise anymore, but for all you rum runners who still hold this close to your hearts, grab your rum and read on.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is falling on hard times — drinking heavily, verbally abusing his small crew — and goes as far as robbing banks instead of plundering buried treasures. After a heist goes awry, he’s arrested and sentenced to death along with a woman named Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), accused of witchcraft. However, they’re saved by a young man named Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), who wants them and Jack’s crew to help him find the mythical Trident of Poseidon. He said the trident can lift all curses in the seas, including his father Will’s (Orlando Bloom) ship the Flying Dutchman.

To find it, they have to rely on Smyth, an astronomer who can recognize maps in the stars. What they don’t know is a ghostly crew, led by the vengeful Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), swearing revenge on Sparrow for what happened to him many years ago, is hunting them down. Even worse, the menacing Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who also seeks the trident, helps Salazar locate Jack. It all intertwines at the trident’s location that will decide the fate of these characters.

Under new directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, it seems evident they know exactly how to film an epic action movie. You do have the usual array of sword fights and sea battles as expected from these movies, but there is also an impressive display of stunt work and physical comedy. The opening action scene, with the bank vault dragged by Jack’s crew along with the bank itself, is a hilarious Looney Tunes-style spoof of a similar scene from “Fast Five.” Once the main characters reach the Trident, the movie becomes a rich visual feast.

Those looking for something new and refreshing in this installment will most likely be disappointed. Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson is interested only in gathering bits and pieces from previous films without resorting to new ideas. The adventure itself is satisfying, but if you want to get more people interested again, you have to think of newer ways to captivate the cynical crowd without using smoke and mirrors. With that said, patrons have to decide if this is worth their hard-earned money to see two hours of simply pretty good entertainment.

For all the good and bad Depp has done in recent years, Jack Sparrow remains his most memorable character. He’s hilariously slurry as usual, though some may find his drunken behavior a little too bothersome. For the first time in this series, Barbossa is given a character arc, and Rush adds layers to the film’s story, including his scenes with Depp. Through makeup and computer-aided imagery, Bardem gives us another interesting villain played with a sympathetic backstory. Thwaites and Scodelario are a little better than those young actors from the previous film, but their characters are more plot devices than anything special.

Whether or not this series will continue is still up in the air, but “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is both an adequately fun sequel and exciting popcorn entertainment. It is a summer, blockbuster movie, even if it fails to reach the level of greatness of a Marvel Studios film.

THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG-13 (for sequences of adventure/violence, and some suggestive content)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3.25 Stars (out of four)