Quick Thoughts on PotC: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Entry posted by Toa Smoke Monster
596 views
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales came out last weekend, and that is when I saw the movie. It's definitely better than the fourth movie, On Stranger Tides. But it still falls short compared to the first three IMO.
They are some good things in it though. One of the opening sequences involving Jack and Co. stealing a bank vault is really cool. It definitely something not seen in a Pirates movie before, and it's one of my favorite action scenes in the movie.
The relationship between Henry and Carina, the two love interests, doesn't feel near as forced here as the one between the guy and the mermaid in the the fourth one. There're no Will and Elisabeth, but I did care for them a little bit by the end of the movie.
And the visuals in this film are stunning. This movie really looks great most of the time.
But this does have some issues. One of them is Jack Sparrow. He's a little too goofy here than he has been in the other movies. Yeah, that's part of his character. But in the other films it felt like he always had a plan underneath the silliness. Here, his character just feels off, like he's trying too hard to get a laugh from the audience. For most of DMTNT, I felt like Jack was just winging it, which isn't like him.
Another issue is the villains. Captain Salazar was cool, and his backstory gave him a good reason for wanting Jack dead. But I don't think he was as interesting of a supernatural villain as Barbossa in Pirates 1 or Davy Jones in the second and third movies. Plus, the designs of some of his crew just looked odd. One guy was missing the upper half of his head, and another was just a floating pair of hands. A FLOATING PAIR OF HANDS! Yes, they were ghosts, and the way they were cursed sort of explains why they look as they do. But they still looked weird.
There is also a wedding scene that just didn't need to be in this film. It tries to be funny, but is painful to watch.
My biggest issue with the film, however, kind of goes into spoiler territory. It involves the end of the film. So I will put it in spoiler tags.
So the main quest Henry is on in this movie is to free Will from being bound to the Flying Dutchman. (Henry is Will and Elisabeth's son, for those who didn't know.) Henry ends up succeeding in his mission, which really disappointed me. I really liked the end of Will and Elisabeth's story in At World's End. Yes, it was sad, but I thought that it was a fitting conclusion to the events that happened in both Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. But this movie's ending undid that. It took off some of the emotional weight from the ending of Will and Elisabeth's story, which cheapens it IMO.
And it doesn't help that Will is only given cameo role in the film. I would've loved to have seen more of Will while he was bound to the Dutchman, and seen how it was affecting him. But he only shows up at the very beginning of the film and the very end. I would've loved for him to have been in it more. And yes, I know Will helping his son probably would've turned him into a Davy Jones lookalike, as he most likely wouldn't be doing the job that the Dutchman acquires. But it would've been undone anyways by helping his son on his mission so I still think he could've helped him.
Overall, Will involvement in the story felt like a wasted opportunity. So much more could've been done with him.
And for anyone wondering, Elisabeth is in the film too. Though she is also a cameo role and has even less screen time than Will.
I know I've ranted on this film a bit, and I don't mean to sound like I hated it. Because I didn't hate all of it. I was just mostly disappointed by it. I really liked the first three Pirate films, especially At World's End. I was hoping after the disaster that was On Stranger Tides, DMTNT would help put the series back on track and be as good as those movies. Though it does take steps in that direction, it also hammers home that maybe its time for the franchise to finally be put to rest. And if the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are going to keep being like this, then maybe it is time for it to end.
Have you seen Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales? If so, what did you think of it? And what is your overall favorite Pirates movie?
0 Comments
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.