Movie Review of 5th Pirates of the Carribean

In 2003, audiences were blessed with a comedic, swashbuckling pirate movie. Everyone involved in that production understood the huge sentimental importance behind it being based off of Walt Disney’s final personal addition to his famous theme park. Their passion and dedication to detail shone through as the perfect balance between lighthearted characters and sincere moments captured the hearts of youths and adults alike. Yet, the drunken pirates that stumbled through the fifth movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales, did not. The charm and direction of the previous films had dissipated and the complete overhaul of the production team was all too evident, making it feel more of a parody rather than a continuation. 

Directed by Norwegian duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Dead Men Tell No Tales, began by quickly introducing the motives behind the two main plotlines; Henry Turner is determined to free his father, Will Turner, from a curse which had separated the two throughout most of his childhood. To do that, he needed to break Poseidon’s trident. Meanwhile, Captain Armando Salazar, finally freed from his own curse, seeks revenge on the pirate who trapped him in the Devil’s Triangle: Captain Jack Sparrow. 

Here, long-time viewers of the series are completely baffled by the first of many glaring continuity issues. Salazar claimed to have gained freedom from Captain Sparrow giving away his special compass. Yet in previous films, Captain Sparrow had already passed the compass to almost all main characters; Captain Hector Barbossa, Master Joshemine Gibbs, Will Turner, and even a villain, Lord Cutler Beckett, had received the compass at some point. Though this is not necessarily a deal-breaker, especially if you hadn’t watched the previous movies, it concretely demonstrated the drastically decreased attention to details and passion put into the film. 

Onto the characters themselves, Captain Jack had lost practically all of his likable swagger. Much of his charm stemmed from his unpredictability, which had greatly decreased over eight hours of screen time. His overplayed humor that might have otherwise driven the movie, fell flat, and gave him no chance to offer a softer, more kind-hearted side as he had before. This made him a narrow-minded, drunken brute which was nothing like the original. Furthermore, Disney faced the issue of making a comic relief take the leading role without having well-written supports. Following his immense success from the first movie, producers had tried to force Captain Jack Sparrow into the leading role. In previous films, they got away with it as the push and pull for control among equally well developed characters, Jack, Barbosa, Will, and Elizabeth, made for a delightfully unpredictable plot. They betrayed each other over and over before finally allying again to defeat a common enemy. Though Jack was a central character, other people had the chance to best him. That made him more human. 

After losing Elizabeth and Will, it became too difficult to reinvest ourselves into the new, poorly developed new couple, Henry Turner and Katrina. This is in part from the audience just not being as familiar with them - after all, the original pirates had been introduced at the same time 13 years prior. However, this did not excuse the writing making the newcomers seem like weak copies of Will and Elizabeth. For example, Elizabeth had taken a stance against the stigma against women of the time, ultimately earning everyone’s admiration and respect and rising to the role of Pirate King. Katrina took the same stance, yet never received the respect and by the end of the film, was still seen as merely a fun object. Similarly, both Turners had chased after something precious to them, but while Will had to compromise his hatred for pirates to earn what he wanted, Henry didn’t have to really lose anything. That loss of dimensionality along with a considerable lack of chemistry with them and the old cast made the movies painful to watch.

By and large, though fans of the Pirate of the Caribbean series may enjoy the nostalgic blast, what Disney delivered fell short, failing to capture the spirit of the previous films. Between contradicting details to underdeveloped characters, Disney’s recent money grabs did nothing but sour the legacy of perhaps Disney’s best nonanimated series.

This is a bit different from what I typically write about, but I figured I could put this out there! Tell me what you think about the Pirates of the Caribbean series or the 5th movie! I personally loved the series but thought the 4th and 5th films fell really short of the mark.