Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales is a very long title and with that, I wish this review was a tale I didn't have to tell. The fifth Pirates movie attempts to give fans more of what they want in a series that continues to show fatigue. I was fairly excited for this film having enjoyed the first few and finding the last one to be alright. That being said, this really falls below all of those movies being a rather boring ride. Things have changed once again with Jack Sparrow having nothing and a new generation of sea worthy individuals taking up the reigns. I found the story to be an interesting idea with execution that wasn't exciting.

It was just more of the British chasing Pirates while the Pirates were chased by some sort of undead force, that being ghosts this time. It was a rather long movie and by the end I was just wanting it to be over, a feeling I hate since I was experiencing it over twenty minutes before it ended as I was tracking time on my Band. This sense of it not being very exciting was felt early on, but by the end it was dragging. Another huge issue was the comedy, it wasn't funny like the other ones were. I had some laughs towards the later parts, but for the most part I was silent just like the theater.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) wasn't that exciting, and with the theater being quiet through his various joke scenes I could see that he wasn't funny this time around. I was also particularly disappointed by Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) as he had the dimensions of being scary, but story didn't let him be. We're then followed by the young male (Brenton Thwaites) and female (Kaya Scodelario) carrying bland characters, but not their fault I suppose.

It felt like these two were just copies of the ones that preceded them and I kept their names secret for spoiler reasons. The film did look really good though with some gorgeous visuals and some crazy zombie sharks. The ships were well done as well as the set pieces, but what was going on in them took away from the locations. The 3D was also quality highlighting the depth, action and air particles.

The Conclusion

I did not enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales, it was boring and slow taking the series backwards instead of a new fresh direction. I had high hopes for this one after the alright previous entry, but the execution was off. It felt as though we've seen bits of this before and it was weighted down by having too many stories going on at once.

The new characters weren't great and there were too many times where I was thinking, "you have got to be kidding me" with how convenient certain aspects of the story were. It was difficult to sit through this one which was disappointing.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales Review at Theater with 3D Viewing
Screening Provided by Walt Disney Studios

Rating Overall: 4.0