Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead men tell no tales - Review

The movie has been released earlier this year and is the fifth film in the Jerry Bruckheimer’s franchise.

It stars Johnny Depp as an undying pirate named Jack Sparrow who overcomes any obstacle that comes his way, Geoffrey Rush as an eternal rival thereof who at the same time happens to save Jack from troubles and disasters however controversially that may sound, Javier Bardem as a dead captain who’s got his reasons to wish revenge on Sparrow, Kaya Scadelario as a young lady constantly mistaken for a witch while being just too smart for that time and Brenton Thwaites as a devoted son whose father is forever cursed and has to endlessly wander the seas in oblivion.

All of these characters and then some are set to find something they all desperately want. It is just a game of fortune who gets to the desired thing first and which one of them will first lay his hands on the object. As far as the plot goes that pretty much covers it.

Before I break down the cons and pros (no spoilers) I’ve noticed in this film I will say that all in all it was an entertaining show and if you just leave any logic and big expectations behind, you may truthfully enjoy this movie. I’ve seen it in IMAX 3D and it was much fun while I was watching. Only when I left the cinema I started to recall a few details that weren’t thoroughly delivered to the audience. It is obvious especially in the first half of the film, when all the main characters only find their way to each other. Sometimes the creators would leave something out so that we just have to believe the character when he or she says that this or that happened. This was probably done to save some screen time, but still you’d like to see things happen for yourself in these kind of movies, so I felt like they should have shown us instead of telling about it.

Action scenes were thrilling and very dynamic. You can tell that Jack Sparrow is really back! I think that Johnny Depp should just stick to this one role for the rest of his life. I don’t like him playing anywhere else anymore because everywhere else he acts I see Jack Sparrow in him and there’s nothing I can do about it.
There’s only one slight comment I’d like to make regarding the action scene in the beginning of the film. It is so much like the sequence used in one of the "Fast and the Furious" movies. The only difference is that horses replace cars.

I was also confused with some manipulation of the key objects. Their relevance was lost somewhere in the cutting process. You may probably understand me better when you watch the movie. Or if you don’t then I may tell you in the comments so that not to spoil here.

We know “Pirates of the Caribbean” to be funny most of the times. The humor in this part is satisfying and appropriate too. There was one scene in particular that I found more amusing than the rest. It was a scene at the town square followed by some good action afterwards. So at least the creators met the mark they settled themselves in previous chapters where humor is concerned.

This part brings us some glimpses of young Jack Sparrow that was created with help of the current technologies. It was in the trailer, so it can’t be a spoiler. I just wanted to note how advanced the modern graphic design can be, because they created the younger face graphically and it was almost as if it was the real one. It obviously took a lot of time and effort, so great job on that.

The only lead female character represented by Kaya Scadelario is very attractive. And she’s smart. Didn’t you know?
But that’s just it! Everyone says how smart she is and we only take her or other person’s word for it! We never truly see her cleverness in action. Yes, she calculates something and does some figuring in the notebook she’s got with her all the time but it’s not like in “Sherlock” where you can follow one’s mind logic. We just…have to believe that what she says is right. Besides this side of the role she plays there’s another questionable moment I didn’t really like. It revolves around her origin. Towards the end “Pirates” begin to relate to soap opera in my book.

One more issue I’ve found is the appearance of some menacing character that is not developed any further. She plays just some small part in the story, makes us believe that she’s going to give Sparrow and his cohorts some bad time and then… nothing. Her existence in the film was confusing as to what role she plays. I admit there may be a bigger picture if they use her in the next installment, unfortunately I failed to see how.

I realise that this is a fiction work but sometimes it felt too convenient when everybody that needed to be found or gracefully pulled into the story just happened to “pass by” and therewith be drawn into the story line just in time.

These were just some random moments I’ve notice while watching the movie. I’ve seen it once and I have to say that I don’t feel like watching it again any time soon, though it was alright. Taking into consideration that I watched "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" about ten times now, I don’t think that wanting to watch only one time is a good sign. There is a tendency here; I want to watch every new movie about the “Pirates” with less enthusiasm.

What do you think? Do you still want to see new “Pirates”? How do you feel about having to see another sequel?

Thank you for reading my review. Please, leave your comments below, your feedback is important to me!

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