The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie set sail 14 years ago. It had been the first great pirate movie in years, and brought Johnny Depp (he’s Captain Jack Sparrow) to the forefront of international stardom, even netting him an Oscar nomation.
Telling the story of a boy (Will Turner, played by Orlando Bloom), a girl (Elizabeth Bennet , played by Keira Knightley), a pendant, and the bloodthirsty buccaneers chasing after them (led by a remarkable Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a critical and commercial hit.
Each sequel was more critically derided—but they remained box office gold.
Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales (or Salazar’s Revenge in some countries) opens internationally today. Bringing back Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley—absent for 2011’s fourth outing, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides—the film is directed by newcomers to the franchise Joachim Rønning, and Espen Sandberg, from a screenplay Jeff Nathanson. New to the cast are Kaya Scoledario, Brenton Thwaites, and Javier Bardem. Paul McCartney (from The Beatles) cameos.
For all that, it looks Pirates of the Caribbean 5 has blown another hole in the ship of this franchise’s sinking critical reputation.
Early Reviews
Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers thinks it’s time to abandon ship: “Except for series newcomer Javier Bardem, who brings a dollop of fresh mischief to this paycheck party, Dead Men Tell No Tales has all the flavor of a rotting leftovers.” Delicious. 1 star.
The Chicago Sun Times’s Richard Roeper likes the film: “Also, we have Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Javier Bardem hamming it up beneath all the makeup and CGI trickery, and that’s a hoot. Bardem’s Salazar is a genuinely frightening creation.” 3 stars.
AO Scott from The New York Times: “Its pleasures are so meager, its delight in its own inventions so forced and false, that it becomes almost the perfect opposite of entertainment.” Brutal.
The Guardian isn’t happy: “The rock’n’roll irreverence Pirates once claimed to have freighted into multiplexes has now long since drifted over the horizon.”
The Independent isn’t keen on the film, either: “Poor chemistry between Thwaites and Scodelario also dampens the affair, leaving Depp with too much to do. Perhaps, if Salazar’s Revenge was our first time meeting Jack Sparrow — or perhaps if Disney had left the franchise alone for another 30 years, like Star Wars (forget those dreaded prequels) — the film would have felt fresh. As it stands, Salazar’s Revenge lacks the spark that made the original 2003 flick so beloved.”
And Variety: “The franchise has lost a bit of its luster with every successive installment, but never has a “Pirates” film felt this inessential, this depressingly pro forma.”
