Pirates of the Caribbean 5 – SPOILER-FREE Review
Directed by: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Starring: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites, Kevin R. McNally, Kaya Scodelario, Golshifteh Farahani, Stephen Graham, David Wenham, Geoffrey Rush
Runtime: 135 min
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is back for one more adventure, the fifth one to be exact! This time around, he finds himself with bad luck knocking on his door constantly and it only grows strong when Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) escapes the Devil’s Triangle with his only goal being to kill all pirates, especially Captain Sparrow.
With the help of Henry (Brenton Thwaites), a young sailor from the Royal Navy, and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a very smart and gorgeous astronomer, they go after the only thing that can save him: the Trident of Poseidon …
The Pirates of the Caribbean saga isn’t properly a great one … Its first film established an amazing character that mostly defines Johnny Depp career (he’s been criticized in other movies for doing too “Jack Sparrow-isms”) and it was a movie full of adventure, fun and thrilling action scenes. From the second installment to the fourth it has been a tormentuous journey, with each movie worse than the latter. Well, one thing is certain: Dead Men Tell No Tales (or Salazar’s Revenge, as it was shown at my theater) is the best one since the first … Which is not saying much.
Let me start with the good things first. The soundtrack keeps being epic and memorable, which makes every action sequence better, even if the action itself isn’t great. Henry and Carina are excellent additions to the story as well as the actors portraying those characters. Javier Bardem also does a great job as the villain and Barbossa gets a very emotional role in this installment, captured brilliantly by Geoffrey Rush. Actually, if there’s one thing that defines the Pirates of the Caribbean series, is the cast’s chemistry, it feels that they’re all there having fun and not just there to receive their paycheck.
The story is the most interesting since the first film of the franchise, even if it becomes a mess mid-way through and too exaggerated. The ending, I dare to say, it’s perfect. I mean, with all its flaws, this movie manages to end on an extremely high note, full of emotion, with a lot of mysteries solved and even some closure (if this isn’t the last time we’ve seen Jack Sparrow, the production is just going to keep drowning the whole thing and ruin it more than what it already is).
For all it’s worth, I still can’t quite give a positive review to this one …
The action scenes are disappointing, they’re there more for a comic relief moment than for a thrilling set piece and there’s more running and jumping than actual sword and ship-fighting. Some of them are so over-the-top that it just makes them look stupid. The humor is also a bit too much … Not that the movie isn’t funny, it’s just that they never once understood when to stop a joke (there are several jokes that go on and on and on and on …).
The pacing is surprisingly slow until the beginning of the third act (best one of the film) and it feels like there’s no rush in saving anyone’s life. The characters are just going from place to place in the messiest, strangest and badly scripted way possible which doesn’t help to keep me captivated at all and actually makes the movie feels longer than it is (even if it is indeed a bit too long).
My biggest disappointment is, by far, Johnny Depp. Don’t get me wrong, he was born to play this role, but I feel that giving him 100% freedom, which is something that was definitely decided behind the scenes with the directors, kind of damaged his performance. It feels like he’s doing an impression of himself portraying Jack Sparrow! In addition to this, Dead Men Tell No Tales is the movie with less screentime for this character … Interesting, at least.
Finally, I didn’t enjoy the humor as I expected to. I think the comedy isn’t as funny and clever as it was already in the previous movies and the whole film seems like a bunch of cool scenes glued together with a messy plot. The production/directors built the story around these awesome moments instead of the other way around and the final result isn’t exactly good.
In the end, Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (or Salazar’s Revenge) is another film that critics are giving too much of a hard time to. It’s the best movie since the first one (which is not saying much, I know), it has an interesting premise, some great additions to the cast and story, the usual epic score that helps the action sequences a lot and the ending is nailed perfectly. However, it does have a lot of flaws: from the action scenes themselves to the slow pacing and from the messy plot to the surprisingly not that funny humor, going through a disappointing performance from Johnny Depp, this film isn’t near perfection whatsoever.
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