I saw in theatres Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, part 5 of the franchise starring Johnny Depp. This entry is the first with Javier Bardem and was written by series newcomer Jeff Nathanson. My plan was to go to the theater for a fun time, pay to see Jack Sparrow 5, and I did have fun seeing it (except for most of the computer animation). What I liked about part 4 (On Stranger Tides 2011, see an earlier post), was that they wrote a story more about the characters than about the visual spectacle that was part 3 (At World’s End 2007). In this film, they focus so much on the visuals of another dead sea army, complete with birds, but the boats do looking amazing! They went to the Moana school of Astronomy (why use a compass? you may as well just give it away), while looking for a treasure that will save the day. Did I mention Javier Bardem is in it? The role was originally cast as Christoph Waltz who had to drop out due to scheduling, and you can’t go wrong adding Javier to your film. Johnny looks like he could do this role forever, I’m sure some folks at Disney wish he could too. They added a couple younger characters to the mix including a wise talking Kaya Scodelario who was funny and a nice add for the franchise.

2017, PG, 2h 9m
Distributor – Buena Vista
Budget – $350 million

Cast & Crew
Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg are a pair from Norway who also co-directed the critically acclaimed films Kon-Tiki (2012) and Max Manus: Man of War (2008). The screenplay was written by Jeff Nathanson who previously had co-wrote Tower Heist (2011 starring Ben Stiller) and Rush Hour 3 (2007 with Jackie Chan), and who will next be co-writing Pirates 6 and The Lion King. Composer Geoff Zanelli takes over for Hans Zimmer, but Geoff has worked on all 5 films. Johnny Depp was busy in 2016, including appearing in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Alice Through the Looking Glass, and will next be seen in Murder on the Orient Express (starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh). Javier Bardem was recently in The Last Face (2016 with Charlize Theron) and The Gunman (2015 with Sean Penn) and will next be seen in Escobar (with his wife and Pirates 4 star, Penélope Cruz) and Mother! (with Jennifer Lawrence). Geoffrey Rush was previously in Final Portrait (written and directed by Stanley Tucci) and is currently appearing in the first season of the tv show Genius. Kaya Scodelario was last seen in her second Maze Runner film (The Scorch Trials in 2015, a sequel is in the works) and will next be seen in The King’s Daughter (starring Pierce Brosnan). Brenton Thwaites was last in Gods of Egypt (2016 with Gerard Butler) and will next be seen in 2 more 2017 projects, An Interview with God and Office Uprising.

Links
IMDB – 7.1

Box Office Mojo

Wikipedia

Spoilers
(please do not continue reading if you have not seen the movie and do not want to read a spoiler)

I like how Disney is ok with letting a pirate flag fly at the top of the castle during the opening credits. The birds and crew looked a tad out of place, but the sharks (nice add), boats (one that can eat other boats), and the water work (especially the walking on the sea floor while it was parted) do look great. Javier was scarier without the animation, when he was standing on his huge pirate sinking ship with the Spanish navy uniform and talking (because if you have Javier in your movie, have him recite a monologue) about hunting pirates, it made me want to watch that movie. Then he starting running on water, then barely standing propped up by a sword, while he’s a ghost. He was creepy enough by just tapping his foot on the ship, (kill a shipmate for every tap). Johnny’s mumbling and innuendo is fun, (write more of those scenes please), and it was neat to see him de-aged (a recent trend of Disney films). At this point in the franchise, you kinda have to be interested to see what happens to every one of the main characters (from all the films) and this film tackled some of them nicely while also happening to setup a sequel. Since (all?) the curses were broken, would you be able to bring back multiple villains from the franchise? That would make for a super sized cast visual spectacle (also a recent trend) and would no doubt be written with the character’s hearts at the center (and not a kraken).