Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2017) Review

We catch up with Captain Jack Sparrow and some new characters in what becomes a rather complicated tale of reaching the trident of Poseidon which some believe does not even exist.

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This is the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film and if you ask me what happened in the last one to be released I really cannot tell you off the top of my head. Which is a shame really as I was such a huge fan of the first film when it originally came out and still appreciate it now.

The confusing thing about this film which I only noticed after attending a cinema screening last night is that in the UK we have a title change and it is called Salazar’s Revenge instead of Dead Men Tell No Tales. Which is a shame really as the original title certainly is a better option considering that line is used many times within the film. I just felt I had to explain that for any of my readers who have it as the proper title and thought they had somehow missed out on a Pirates film somewhere.

The new characters we are given each have their own storyline going on which is one of the reasons it becomes confusing. We are given Henry Turner who has started to grow up and wants nothing more than to release the curse on his father Will Turner which ties him to the Flying Dutchman. Carina Smyth who is chasing the stars which she believes is a map to find the trident, a book left by her father has kept her going over the years, she is also accused of being a witch. Then we have Salazar who is cursed to the sea with his crew of dead men, yes we have seen that before with Barbossa and his crew in Curse of the Black Pearl.

The best thing is though is that we get more Barbossa, seriously Geoffrey Rush is the best Pirate on film for me. Yes, even better than Captain Jack Sparrow who by this stage has well and truly become a parody of himself. I mean you cannot help but look to seeing Depp as Sparrow but in this film he was just slurring through the lines as the character was more drunk than ever before. The moments which would usually be amusing seemed to have lost their charm over the years. Which was a total shame really, although I have to mention the scene where he is the younger version that was rather creepy but very well put together.

I did think Brenton Thwaites was a great choice for Henry Turner as he really did have that Orlando Bloom look from the first film all of those years ago, giving him the same hair it was quite uncanny at times. Obviously I wanted more Will Turner in the film but the way the character was used was a good part of the story. I cannot help but admit while the majority of the film was all over the place I really did enjoy the last 15/20 minutes as I felt it tied off loose ends and came full circle. It felt a very fitting end to the franchise, so it is a shame that they will probably still make more films. For me it just seemed to work out well and I actually quite enjoyed the Barbossa twist and moments which was quite the surprise.

I would put this one as a good effort though and in a similar format to Curse of the Black Pearl. I wonder how many more times we can have different curses and if Disney will still try to exploit the amazing Box Office’s this film franchise brings. Even the little things like the music for certain scenes brought the memories of the first film back, it just tried too much with loads of plot points to remember. In the end though I did find myself enjoying it a lot more than expected.