Dead Men Tell No One-Liners
(7/10)
You may not think of this movie as a geeky one but in reality it is. The main reason we’re reviewing the fifth installment of The Pirates of the Caribbean series is because it has a huge following and with that it garners the characterization of a fandom. The amount of money this series has made from the box office, collectables, and various merchandise is astounding and I saw this movie because I am both a fan and, admittedly, I was curious to see what happens next in the story, if there was more story to be told.
For the most part, I really liked the narrative they presented: The son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann searching for a way to get his “cursed” Father out of his sentence on The Flying Dutchman. Cursed is in quotations because it’s kind of a sweet deal. Will Turner gets to live for eternity. Yeah, he has to usher the dead into the afterlife and doesn’t get to see his family very often, but that’s a decent price to pay to not be dead right now. Nonetheless, it was a promising premise. That wasn’t the only plot point that tried to take the reigns in this film, though. There were a lot of other stories this movie wanted to tell and they all got in each other’s way. There was so much to follow that it was hard to follow any of it. Even the main point drowned in the sea of storylines and copious backstories. There were so many that it was hard to follow and care about the characters motivations.The movie definitely needed to pick a story stick to it. It was obvious they were trying to build up the cast to continue the series, hence the new character’s backstories, but they also tried to build upon old characters in a way only cluttered the movie.
Another thing we thought this movie needed less of was Jack Sparrow, and more specifically, his unnecessary goofiness and one-liner quips. There were so many times watching this movie where we just thought, “Why Jack, why?” As you can tell by the title we gave this review, we are not fans of too many jokes. Some of the levity in the movie was appreciated. It was true to the overall tone of the series, but there were moments that could have been left out and most of them were Jack Sparrow antics. It was like they were trying too hard to write in some of what made the character great in the past movies, his randomness. In the first film Captain Jack’s goofiness felt natural and it worked but, that use of the character is beginning to feel outdated and overdone.
Overall the movie was enjoyable to watch, the story was intriguing, and the character development was great. It could be said that the series as a whole is in decline, but if they can reign in the story they’re trying to tell and focus on the new characters they introduced, they could continue the series and it be good content. The Pirates of the Caribbean storyline has the following and interest to keep going, they just have to do it right or they’ll lose people.