All right, now we have entered into the fifth movie of the Pirates franchise. There was once a time that many people were excited about a Pirates movie starring Johnny Depp. But, times have changed since the first movie came out in 2003. The series has dwindled with the directors, screenwriters and visual effects artists trying too hard to please me and the target audiences. Plus, Johnny Depp's history and celebrity status has been now questionable because of the news surrounding his persona and also he has not made many good movies for a while and has played too many cartoonish characters or caricatures. The only solid performance he has given in the past few years is Black Mass. I did not have high expectations going to this movie because I was groaning with another Pirates movie. Thinking about my experience with this movie, I have to say that I had a better time than I thought because of its second half. However, the first half started out very sloppy and drags the overall effort into an OK effort, and I enjoyed it more than At World's End and certainly, On Stranger Tides.
Henry Turner (Brandon Thwaites), who is the son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Henry wants to break his father's curse, as he bounded to the ship for eternity as it was said in the third movie. He has to search the Trident of Poseidon and he need Captain Jack Sparrow's (Johnny Depp) help, but Will forbids him from finding it. Years later, he is in a cell for insubordination because he warns the crew on a Royal Ship that they are sailing into a dangerous place, the Devil's Triangle. The soldiers are soon attacked by the undead pirates of the Silent Mary. Boarding the warship is Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem) and he finds Henry and orders the boy to send a message to Jack to tell him that Salazar is looking for him.
Captain Jack Sparrow has been a burden to the crew as he has become a laughing stock to the crew as he is not his old self, even Mr. Gibbs (David McNally) has lost faith in him. Henry is back in a cell now for treason and he is about to be executed as Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), an astronomer accused of witchcraft, rescues him as she wants to help Henry find the Trident with the help of her diary which has a map inside. They escape but Jack and Carina go to jail once again. With the help of Henry, his money and Jack's crew, they help Jack and Carina escape...again and go to their ship and onto their voyage with Salazar and his crew pursuing him.
I enjoyed half of this movie, which was the second half, which almost completely translates to my enjoyment of At World's End. I thought that movie was half-boring, half-exciting. This movie is a bit boring because of one performance but mostly half-confusing, half-exciting. The first half is a big mess where they introduce too many new characters and set up one too many backstories. It is because the execution is poor that the directors and screenwriters want to jump the gun. It felt rushed as characters get arrested for their poor actions and then we have to explore why the characters are helping each other searching for the Trident and I started to have a headache. But, once they escape, the adventure begins and then it starts to become somewhat exciting because of what Salazar's mission was going to be to kill Jack. But, why does he want to kill the remaining pirates? I don't know.
Johnny Depp gave a masterful performance as Jack Sparrow in the first movie but his performance here seems to be more lazy, cartoonish and not as exciting, however, there's not much of him this time. I thought Javier Bardem was quite powerful once again as the villain but sometimes the visuals were distracting. Geoffrey Rush felt more tired in the last movie but he is menacing and more complex in this movie than I though he would be. As for the new players, Thwaites and Scodelario have not much to do but the two of them, particularly Scodelario, did a good job with their roles. However, the characters seemed too familiar as they were a flashback to the first movie.
And, that was my biggest problem with the movie. This fifth movie felt like an uneven reboot to the first movie as you have two young characters being on an adventure and eventually fall in love in the end as they are on an adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow. I mean, come on, you can see that aspect coming. It felt like re-introducing everybody and every new player halted the movie for like 45 minutes as some sort of prelude and then we got on with the meat of the movie.
The second half, mostly the third act, is quite interesting as we follow the characters and witness some exciting action sequences and fantastic set pieces that could rival the action scenes in the first movie as being the best. It will get people awake because there are stakes that I cannot reveal because it is a spoiler. The conclusion is nice as we spot a cameo and actually, it would have been fine if they just end the Pirates franchise there. However, there is a post-credits scene that made no sense that tied in with a previous movie.
Directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning and writer Jeff Nathanson try to make this fifth entry more exciting and it almost succeeds in that but the first half felt like they were not trusting themselves or not believing the audience to get on with the story. The first half should have had more tighter storytelling so we can get on the adventure because it felt a bit lackadaisical. I was surprised that the franchise's trajectory did not spiral downward with this movie because I had fun for about the last 30-45 minutes but the remainder was like the editor, screenwriter and director were toying with ideas and making a big mess and did not know what to do with the movie. But, it's not enough to warrant a recommendation. It was OK.
**1/2
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