Plot: Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew of misfits return. When an evil ghost ship lead by Captain Salazar goes hunting for Jack, Sparrow's only hope of survival is looking for the legendary trident of Poseidon.

First and foremost, I love the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. It's great fun, with top performances in a very well constructed world. I kind of get the hate, especially for the fourth installment On Stranger Tides. But this franchise is one of the most exciting ones of recent times in my opinion.

It is hard to imagine that it has been 14 years since the first Pirates film. 2003 saw The Curse Of The Black Pearl get really well received by both the critics and general public. It is easy to forget that this opening to a franchise got 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Johnny Depp as the now iconic Captain Jack Sparrow.
It's sequel Dead Man's Chest is where allegiances become split. While the majority of critics did not like it, the public still can't get enough of the swash-buckling action. For me, it's fantastic and is my favourite of the franchise. I loved how they expanded this world, and how clever all the sub-plots managed to end up. It also won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
It also managed to beautifully set-up At World's End. I will agree that it is hard to keep up with all the sub-plots and the reasoning . But I personally managed to not only understand what was going on, but make sense of it.
Four years later saw the fourth chapter On Stranger Tides get made. It was quite the gap before this one came around. That loss of momentum and the film in general being easily the weakest in the franchise gave this sub-par reviews from all demographics. I will agree, it is nowhere near as good as the first three. But I still enjoyed this one.

Six years later, and amazingly we still apparently need more adventures with Captain Sparrow and his crew. I'm always up for another adventure. But this huge gap even got me worried that people might not care for this franchise anymore.

A thrilling opening action set-piece really gets you back into this world straight away. While Depp's performance early on looks a bit over the top, even by his standards, the start is a romping one. Then we start to see some new characters who are effectively a new version of Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom's characters. They began quite promising, and I would be interested to where they would end up.
I was really happy to see them remind ourselves about the predicament our heroes were in at the end of On Stranger Tides. So I can safely say it does mean that you have to watch the previous films to get everything that is happening on screen.
The second act moves along at a solid pace with a terrific tent-pole action scene, including a very cool flashback scene that shows the origins of our main character which executed rather well. Some gags weren't quite working by this time. But there was still enough fun to be had going into the finale.
The build-up to the final act had pretty cool swash-buckling/fantasy action. Then the finale it self was definitely sparing no expense on the ambition.

It is directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg. They haven't done any big films until now, and I think it showed. It might not be as exciting or memorable as the first three. But I still had a good time with it.

While Johnny Depp has good moments of vintage Jack Sparrow. For the most part, it felt like more of an impression by one of those street artists you see in busy shopping areas. I think he needed to hold the reigns back a bit, and we would have got that scruffy deceiving pirate who manages to always be one step ahead of you.
Javier Bardem was fine as the main villain. But I think the design that they gave him did not make me think that this guy is bad news. It made me question the CGI more than anything else. With that in mind, and his performance not being engaging enough to be memorable, he was probably on-par with Ian McShane's portrayal of Blackbeard in On Stranger Tides.
I liked what they did with Geoffrey Rush. Yes, he is back as Hector Barbossa. Unlike Depp, Rush remains consistent with his character and is probably many people's favourite supporting character. He also looks like the only person that fits the tone of the film perfectly.
As for the newbies in the form of Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites, the former was surprisngly good and the latter was just a pretty boy to replace Orlando Bloom. I felt Scodelario's character was a strong female character that I could get invested with, and I hope to see her in any potential new Pirates films.
It was great to see a lot of the old gang back with Kevin McNally as Gibbs, Stephen Graham as Scrum, Martin Klebba as Marty and the bumbling duo of Angus Barnett and Giles New as Mullroy and Murtogg.
I was really surprised to see David Wenham in this. I've always seen him as a really good supporting character who is always well under-used, and it's the same for this one. He gets introduced well, and gets slowly shifted aside for the main characters.
It was great to see Golshifteh Farahani get her big break after her great performance in Paterson. Sadly she was given a very strange role that made little sense to be honest. If felt like the writers attempts at giving us a new Tia Dalma-esque character. But sadly, they could not emulate the work Naomie Harris did.
There is one cameo you might already be aware of, and when it first came on screen I thought it was completely ridiculous. But by the end of it, the writing given to this particular character ending up being rather funny. So a mixed reaction on that surprise.

A Pirates Of The Caribbean movies always means a huge budget. But sadly like a lot of blockbusters these days, a lot of the visual effects look far too digital and feel out of place with the practical effects. Maybe I'm just being an old fart. But it just seems a lot of big budget films can't seem to always pull off impressive CGI that flows seamlessly with the live-action. An example I always use is 1993's Jurassic Park. When visual effects was in its infancy, they not only still hold up, but they for me are still the best CGI within that particular franchise.
The CGI in this was probably the worst. A fair amount of it was fine. But some of the character designs did not look right on screen and landscape shots clearly looked like green screen.

The practical sets in these films always please me a lot. Those moments looked great and elevated those scenes, as they added emotional weight to the action taking place.

Another essential aspect of any Pirates film is the now infamous score. It's still great to hear. Hans Zimmer's themes are still there. But this time, doing the score is a man called Geoff Zanelli. He added some good additions to the already well established score.

There were a few negatives that I have to mention. There were lots of dark scenes that were tough to tell what was going on. Also there were moments where the dialogue forced me to really tune my ears to make sure I could hear what was being said. If they could have put a bit more light into those scenes and sharpened the execution of the dialogue, then that probably would have enhanced those action scenes a bit more, and made it more of a spectacle.
The duration is an interesting one. This is probably the only time when I felt a Pirates film to be too long. But it turns out, this is the shortest one of the franchise at just over 2 hours long. That for me means that the story was not interesting enough to fill that amount of time.
My final negative was the comedy. This franchise I remember having a surprising amount of laughs. I struggle recall any amusing moments in this one.

In the end I had a fairly good with it. Every aspect does enough to fill the time well. But it is nowhere near as memorable or engaging as the first three.
I could be cruel and say that Salazar's Revenge and On Stranger Tides have become a re-hash of The Curse Of Black Pearl. Both are uninspiring, there is little tension and everyone just seems to be going through the motions with no real stakes or much content you can get invested in. To be honest, I could say that for so many new franchise installments.
There was not anything terrible about it. But there is not much that is great and that will stick in your head long after seeing it.

To rank this with the others, I would put this on a par with On Stranger Tides. But if I had to separate them, I would give On Stranger Tides the edge. To call this the worst of the franchise would be a bit harsh. It is more of my least favourite.
I think the general fans will find this a serviceable couple of hours. For the purist Pirates fan like myself, you can have fun with it and enjoy seeing how they expand the mythology within this world.

As usual, I was glad I missed the trailers. Now that I've seen them, it contained a lot of my favourite moments from the film. Had I had seen the trailers, I would probably would not have liked them as much.

And finally, like with all the other Pirates films, there is a post-credit scene. It's clear set-up for a potential sixth chapter, and the stuff they hint looked cool. But I am dreading that this one could be just the equivalent of a greatest hits album. Nothing new, just re-treading familiar waters. Fingers crossed that I am wrong.

Rating: 7/10