Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Review

     The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been a box office monster since the first one was released in 2003. Although the films as a whole have certainly had their ups and downs, their box office success as been a primary strength. I was very curious to see how this one would do considering it's been six years since the last one. This is a very intriguing franchise considering every film after the original has not been too strong. Although I enjoy the second movie, Dead Man's Chest, I understand its complaints. The third, At World's End, is even worse and the fourth, On Stranger Tides, is almost unbearable. However, the trailers for the newest one, Dead Men Tell No Tales, had me curious especially with the villain, Captain Salazar being portrayed by Javier Bardem. Although Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has some incredibly massive missteps, it has some pleasant moments and certainly takes strides in the right direction.
     When Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) takes down Captain Salazar (Bardem) and his crew. It leads to a treacherous curse for Salazar's crew so they will do whatever it takes to hunt down Sparrow and get their revenge. Sparrow has other plans in mind in which he will track down the trident of King Poseidon with the help of newcomers, Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario).

     The biggest strength of the film actually comes from the newcomers. Henry Turner is the son of beloved character Will Turner (before everyone freaks out it was in the marketing material) but is almost more intriguing. He's more cunning but certainty exhibits the determination of his father. I found his and Carina's storyline the most interesting more then Jack's. While Jack has enjoyable moments, especially involving guillotines and zombie sharks, it almost feels like he's makes his way through scene with sheer dumb luck. In the first movie, Sparrow certainly had lucky moments but he was also very clever and persuasive. It seems as though Disney kind of just forgot about that and wants to make him incredibly over the top all the time. Even Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) has a better character arc then Sparrow in this film.
     The villain for this movie, Captain Salazar is definitely one of the more better developed villains within this franchise. Although the trailers marketed the character as a little goofy, he's certainly creepy and is humor is more twisted then goofy. Bardem has a great habit of stealing every scene he is in nearly every movie and he definitely has his moments in this.

     Visually this movie relies heavily on CGI. While I think some more practical effects would of greatly enhanced the movie, the visuals effects in this are actually pretty good. There's a scene that involves a young, Jack Sparrow that is really solid. This paired with an awesome score from Geoff Zanelli creates for some really pretty scenes.
     Besides Sparrow, the place where this movie struggles the most is within all the side quests that go on. There's a side quest for Barbossa and another involving the British Navy that are just kind of there. Much like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, it feels as though the movie bit off way more then they can chew. The runtime for this movie is a little over 2 hours and we could have cut about 15 minutes out if it weren't for these side quests.
     Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is probably the best of the franchise we've gotten since the second movie. It has some incredible weak areas, especially with Captain Jack and trying to take on too much but it could help set up a trend for future movies. That's why I am going to barely rate this as a pass.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10