Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (6/10)
Up to (finally) seeing this film, I stated that POTC was a case of a series where every film was worse than the one preceeding it. The good news is that Dead Men breaks this trend. The bad news is that doesn't make the film "good" itself. As far as rankings go, it's now a case of 1>2>5>3>4. As far as this film goes?
Well, the odd thing about Dead Men is that it's kind of an amalgamation of every POTC film that's gone before, putting those elements in a blender, and making good elements worse, and bad elements better. What do I mean about this? Well:
-Henry and Carina are to this film what Will and Elizabeth were to the first - boy and girl finding 'true wuv' over the course of events, with Jack being well aware of the proverbial cherubs. So on one hand, it does a worse job than the first film, because they're not quite as compelling. On the other, it's a much, MUCH better job than the likes of...person and mermaid girl in film 4 (then again, most romances are).
-Salazar and the Mary are to this film what Davy Jones and the Dutchman were to film 2. Salazar and Jones both come after Jack, both do so in a magic ship, and both have an army of ghosts/fish people. So on one hand, Salazar isn't a bad antagonist - his motivations make sense, his anti-priacy crusade gives him some nuance, the actor does a great job, etc. On the other hand, he's a pale, um, ghost, of Jones and the Dutchman. And even in the realm of naval officers pursuing Jack, he's no Norrington. Furthermore, while I don't really care that much how magic works in this setting, why Salazar and hsi crew became ghosts is never explained (unlike film 1), and while like Jones Salazar can't walk on land (unlike the Dutchman crew, his men can't either), it's never explained why, nor is there any thematic depth to it. He can't walk on land, because if he could, the protagonists would be dead.
-The Trident of Poseidon is a blatant McGuffin, thta like the Fountain of Youth, is one that's not only pursued by the protagonists, but also an imperial power (the British rather than the Spanish). On the other hand, it works better here in that there's more reason to be invested here in Henry using it to free Will rather than the whole Blackbeard immortality stuff that I just don't care about.
-The finale is akin to film 3, only instead of a giant whirlpool that ships mustn't fall into, it's a parting of the sea that a ship mustn't fall into. So while it's not as epic, that's arguably a good thing, since film 3 was far too big and bloated for its own good.
-Jack is less agile than he was in previous films, but it's arguably part of the point, so while Depp kind of comes off as sleepwalking at times, it does fit the character. Though since Jack has given the compass to people before, why wasn't Salazar freed then?
There's other things I could mention, but it's kind of telling how this is, as of this writing, the last POTC film, and it feels like a book-ender to a series by incorporating elements from across all of it. At the end of the day, though, it's...fine. That's really all I can say. It's an adventure romp that had some laughs from me, some eyerolls (the shotgun wedding scene...ugh...), some stunts that had me feeling like a kid again (e.g. the entire bank heist scene), while others were just a CGI fest (the final battle). Considering how Jack's lost its mojo, it's fair to say that the film series had clearly lost its mojo at this point as well. However, it's easily a better note to go out on than Stranger Tides, so there is that.
