Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge

Blockbuster season is well and truly upon us and it looks like, for once, new franchises and one-off event movies will dominate the cinematic landscape. Of course, though, there’s still room for the odd money-spinning unnecessary sequel and the latest on the market is Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (bizarrely changed from the, far better, US title: Dead Men Tell No Tales which is not only more apt for the film, but actually uttered more than once in the dialogue.)

Disney’s adaptation of a tucked-away theme park ride initially hit a lovely sweet spot in the market; an old fashioned, big budget Blockbuster with an all-star cast and a family-friendly pirate setting that wasn’t twee or old fashioned. Since then, we’ve had the two strong initial sequels and the majorly unnecessary, and just plain bafflingly nonsensical, On Stranger Tides.

This new one, like so many resurrected franchises before it, aims to tickle the nostalgia button of the original with some returning characters and a plot that hearkens back to the first: two will they/won’t they youngsters are after a typically unexplained Macguffin for family reasons, with a little help from everyone’s favourite rogue.

The fact that the plot actually makes sense is a plus point, but it appears Disney have deliberately resorted to an on-rails, linear narrative because of the horror show of the last one so it does not only mean this is the shortest of the series to date, but also probably the most youngster friendly (despite a few double-entendres thrown in for the adults.)

Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario are good stand ins for Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley (who haven’t aged a day since they last appeared ten years ago!) but dear old Johnny Depp is sleepwalking through his performance. Jack Sparrow will be filed in the upper echelons of all time character performances but the usual swagger and charm is missing here: Depp was going through a pretty turbulent time around the making of the movie and, unfortunately, it shows.

Continuing with adhering to current trends; we even get a CGI-ed younger Jack Sparrow (is this now an actual THING?! Is this going to start happening all the time, will actors become obsolete completely?) which attempts to explain the origin of the character and bring credence to Salazar’s (Slytherin?) standing as an ‘important’ villain. As good as Javier Bardem always is, he doesn’t quite have the menacing impact of Davy Jones or Barbossa and none of his crew are particularly memorable which means when the, inevitable, final battle arises it falls a little flat, certainly in comparison to past instalments.

Some of the spirit and life has returned, and the importance of an easy to follow narrative can never be understated, so, whilst not hitting the lofty heights of the initial trilogy, I feel that Salazar’s Revenge is a move in the right direction for the Pirates… franchise.

New and old faces bring a bit of vibrancy to proceedings, as well as some actually dramatic revelations, and, overall, it’s your typical summer blockbuster. Will Disney decide Pirates… now needs to walk the plank? Or will they find their buried treasure with the sixth entry?

3 stars ***