In the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Dead Men Tell No Tales, we return to the seas on another adventure with our ridiculous Captain Jack Sparrow. This time pairing up with a new bickering couple of non-pirates, and being chased down by his old frenemy Captain Barbossa and his even older enemy Captain Salazar. It’s obvious that none of these sequels will ever match the brilliance of the first film The Curse Of The Black Pearl, but this one sits somewhere similar to second or third films and is thankfully better than its direct predecessor.
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns forced back out onto the seas by Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) the son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) to find the Trident of Poseidon, a mystical relic said to be able to remove all curses. Henry needs to find the trident to free Will from his bond to the Flying Dutchman. However it’s only with the help of the wilful astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) that they can find the trident. Hot on their heels though is Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Red Coat Lieutenant Scarfield (David Wenham) and the ghostly, villainous and merciless Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem) bent on killing Jack and ridding the oceans of all pirates.
For the first 15 minutes of the film, Depp stumbles around a lot playing the drunk, destitute and purposeless Sparrow. He’s not as charming or charismatic as before, but there are still those odd moments of gold comedic timing. We are also introduced to Aussie actor Thwaites’ Henry and Scodelario’s Carina, the young not-pirate pairing clearly in lieu of the Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley duo that shared the load of the first three films with Depp. These two may not quite have the same heartening chemistry but manage to hold their own enough when on screen beside the more lauded actors like Depp, Rush and Bardem.
Surprisingly it’s the villains of the film that are far more interesting. The main being Bardem’s Salazar, killing with no mercy and single-mindedly searching for his prey, Captain Jack Sparrow. Bardem is menacing and ghoulish, thanks to both his performance and the CGI to turn him into a water-logged wraith. He’s a bit of a mystery at least well into halfway of the film when we are finally given an explanation as to his circumstances and why he’s sto intent on killing Jack. Then there’s Rush’s Barbossa, a character whose allegiances lie in a morally grey area, his character arc is the best in the film, as we see him hop, skip and jump his way across manipulating Salazar and Sparrow for his own ends and it’s obvious that Rush enjoys the complexity of this character. And even though Wenham may not have much screen time in this, he deliciously chews up the opportunity to play an evil Red Coat Naval Lieutenant chasing down Henry, Carina and Jack.
Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (who both worked on Kon-Tiki together) take Jeff Nathanson and Terry Rossio’s script through the motions not too dissimilar from 2006’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. There’s plenty of manipulation, double-crossing and backstabbing going on here amongst the characters as each of them use the other in order to acquire the trident, something that seems to be a common occurrence in all the Pirates films, I guess they are pirates after all. But what comes as a surprise is the script injecting some thematic daddy-issues for both Henry and Carina that seems to be their emotional motivations driving them in the plot. Plus we also see a CGI young Jack Sparrow and given an almost origin story type moment when Salazar explains how he came to be cursed and how Jack acquired the magic compass – a prop of great significance in the Pirates lore. Thereby giving us an almost full-circle type moment.
The film itself may feel like it’s rehashing some of its own ideas and concepts, but keep in mind that this entire franchise was based purely on a Disneyland ride and attempting to bring that to a movie screen. So it’s certainly not without its flaws and issues. Frustratingly cinematographer Paul Cameron’s work is predominantly set in dark night time or stormy environments that makes it tedious to watch as your eyes strain to make out the characters. And the film is sorely lacking in female representation, and when news broke earlier this week that originally Rossio’s script had the main antagonist as portrayed by a woman but that Depp ultimately nixed the idea, it only leaves us wondering how that could have played out. And also what was the point of having Keira Knightley literally show up for less than a minute of screen time and have no dialogue? She may as well have not shown up at all.
What we can take comfort in is that a Pirates movie will always feature some slapstick physical comedy gags, some ridiculous action set piece sequences and some impressive visual effects. As well as Jack complaining about the lack of alcohol and professing his love for his Black Pearl. These franchises as they start to grow long in the tooth will always struggle to match their predecessors but at least this one was better than the previous trash fire that was 2011’s On Stranger Tides. It might be time for Disney to berth the Pirates franchise in a port after this, however the post credits scene at the very end definitely hinted a possibility of yet another Pirates film should they choose to proceed.
Review Score: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Running Time: 129 minutes
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is screening in Australian cinemas from today through Disney Pictures Australia.
———-
