Review: Pirates of the Caribbean - Salazar's Revenge

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge / Dead Men Tell No Tales (2D)
Cert: 12A / 129 mins / Dir. Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg / Trailer



Now the main thing to bear in mind for the duration of this review is, Salazar's Revenge*¹ wasn't going to be 'for' me. And I'm fine with that. I've never really found Disney's PotC series any more than quite good at best, and my recent live-tweeting of installments one-to-four was knocked on the head after the first two, as I was becoming bogged down by the rapid succession of the things I didn't like about them.

So, we're now approximately nineteen years down the line from the end of At World's End, and young Henry Turner (Brendon Thwaites) thinks he's figured out a way to free his father Will (Orlando Bloom) from his 'Being The Captain Of The Flying Dutchman' curse. This will involve tracking down Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Meanwhile elsewhere, young scientist and scholar Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) is on the verge of being executed by her townsfolk for witchcraft, and is determined to discover the identity of her long-lost father. This will involve a chance meeting with Jack Sparrow (Spoiler: he's not her dad). Old faces from movies past return for the outing (although there are more than a few notable by their absence), and despite having a superb villain in the form of Javier Bardem's Salazar (think: a livid, Spanish Darth Vader), the inevitable violence is kept within 12A-certificate levels. For a family thrill-ride, you could do a lot worse.

I just didn't find the finished product particularly interesting. And it's not as if there's an absence of plot mechanics or pacing issues slow that plot down at all; action set-pieces are delivered, swashes are buckled and timbers are shivered with watch-setting regularity. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen all of this before, and barely even in a different order.

Outside of the aforementioned scene-stealing by Sr. Bardem, Kaya Scodelario, Brendan Thwaites and Geoffrey Rush are all aching for a better screenplay, their obvious talent largely wasted. But I may as well join the choir in saying that the real problem here is Johnny Depp, not even mustering his usual lacklustre levels of performance. By this point, Jack Sparrow*² feels like he should be an incidental character in 'Allo 'Allo, wheeled out once a week with his worn-out schtick in the hope that audience-familiarity will be enough to pad over the gaps in the script. It won't. If anything, the one-note seafarer is just getting in the way now, the very agent holding the series back rather than pushing it boldly forward. Ironically, the character has become more of an anchor than Disney ever intended.

All that said, I don't feel able to lay out the beating that many critics are currently getting off their chests, if only because I don't feel the film's put in enough effort to really warrant one. There are good things in PotC5, but nowhere near enough of them and for nowhere near as long as they need to be.

However, it's also important to note that I actually fell asleep during the multi-million dollar, climactic battle of Salazar's Revenge. I mean only to the point where I jolted myself awake, but still. What can I tell you? By that point I was all out of fucks to give, and the murky*³, fast-cut action/mayhem shaky-cam, coupled with what can only be described as overwhelming symphony of grey-noise from the orchestra, audio-effects department and indeed the cast, basically just said to my brain 'you can't actually concentrate on any of what's meant to be happening here. Just sleep and pick it all up from the ending you know is in the post anyway'.

And with the exception of Bardem, the after-credits sequence made me happier than anything in the preceding one hundred and twenty eight minutes.

The other PotC films.



Only if you like watching the same thing again but bigger and louder.



I have no idea.



Going to go out on a limb here and say no.



Probably not. But you'll have to explain yourself.



There is.



Level 1: Sabé and Tion Medon are in this.





*¹ No you're right, Ian Disney, giving a different episode-title just for the UK release makes absolute sense. I'm assuming this is so you can tell how many cam-jobs are originating from our shores, given that it's not like "Dead Men Tell No Tales" is a phrase us Brits would look at and think 'hey hang on, how is that pirate-related?'. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Sorry, 'Captain' Jack Sparrow. Hahaha, yeah, that never gets old… ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ And given that the final half hour is way too dark (visually) in 2D, my heart goes out to the poor saps who watched this in 3D and had to put up with the associated light-loss… ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

153: Review - PotC - On Stranger Tides

CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.




Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
18 May 2011. Location: Cinema

Oh yes, I braved the scurvy seas of Orange Wednesdays to see this on the UK opening night. That's how much I love you lot. It's not at all because I've got a busy period approaching in my social calendar and if I didn't get to see it now, it would probably end up being in a couple of weeks, and who'd give a toss about my review then, eh? No, it's not that at all.

Anyway, on to the film! It's almost exactly what you expect it'll be. And I mean that in a good way and a bad one. There's swaggering, boasting, ropes and swordplay. Sultry chicks, swoony guys, scabby captains and a screeching monkey. It's pretty much exactly like the other three, with one caveat to be detailed below. There's a rather magnificent supporting cast of British actors, including Judi Dench and Richard Griffiths in what are essentially cameo roles at the start.

Depp and McNally are on the usual fine form as Sparrow and Gibbs respectively. Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa almost gets some character development, but even when he's coasting it, he's still great fun to watch. Penélope Cruz is entertaining enough as a feisty love interest, and Ian McShane has decided to interpret his role as "in the style of Ian McShane". He's pretty much Lovejoy with a scruffy wig and beard, and stops trying to do a pirate-voice fairly early on.

The Good:
The film has a solid enough plot, with three separate parties all trying to locate the fabled Fountain of Youth. This, as well as the silver chalices needed to use the fountain, makes for a nice MacGuffin. The setpieces are well measured with breathing space in between, and the stuntwork and visual effects are all spot-on as usual. Hans Zimmer's score works well, also as before. Oh, and nice work with the threatening Mermaids, even if the cheeky beggars at Doctor Who jumped the gun on that one by a couple of weeks. I was hoping for more zombies, but the two we get are great (even if they can talk).

The Bad:
Ian McShane can act. I've seen him do it. And yet (as I said above), he's not bringing anything to the character of Blackbeard. Other than his magic rope-controlling-sword, he's barely expanded on at all. Even Davy Jones got his backstory told in Dead Man's Chest. McShane's not alone either. There's some fantastic acting-talent in here, but not a lot of actual acting going on, but that's probably more to do with the cast not being given that much to work with. Which leads me to…

The Ugly:
With the sole exception of the mostly-missed-opportunity of the missionary and the mermaid, there is no depth or character development of any kind in the movie. It's occurred to me that the reason I love the second and third PotC movies is the arc of Davy Jones and Calypso. Other than the characters who actually die in ...On Stranger Tides, everyone emerges unchanged at the other end of the film. I know I shouldn't expect too much from PotC, but it's capable of more than this. Depp is capable of more. But hey, how much would I convey and emote in a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Disney film, eh?

All in all:
It's great if you've enjoyed the others. In fact, it's even an okay place to start as there's no backstory referenced that you can't piece together yourself.
Don't expect too much, and you won't be let down.



A solid actioner, but with nothing new to offer. Will the franchise continue? Of course it bloody will, it's making money. And more power to'em!
Now release some decent 3¾" scale figures please...


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.

• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.