Jack is back, Captain Jack Sparrow that is! The fifth adventure in the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise hits theaters May 26th! Hard to believe that it has been fourteen years since the first one arrived back in 2003. At that time pirate movies had long been considered to be a failed genre but Pirates proved everyone wrong with an incredible cast, fantastic story and a powerful musical score!
Since then, three more films followed, and here we are six years after Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In that time we have seen the Walt Disney Studios live action fare go from trying to replicate the Pirates formula to almost not needing it at all. In fact, all the studios under the Walt Disney Studios umbrella are firing on all cylinders. The Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Walt Disney live action are creating blockbuster after blockbuster. So while maybe another Pirates film wasn't needed, it was easy to see that Dead Men Tell No Tales is a much needed breath of fresh air into the franchise.
The film is brilliantly directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (the duo directed the historical drama Kon-Tiki) who immediately bring us back into the world of Pirates with a reminder that this film is a direct sequel to the third movie in the franchise, At World's End, rather than continuing after On Stranger Tides. Without giving anything away, you quickly learn that there is a quest to find the Trident of Poseidon. And an early action sequence made me think of the Fast and The Furious franchise set in the time period of Pirates and you are back into the swashbuckling fun of the original movie.
Johnny Depp, stars as his now iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, down on his luck and once again finds another person from his past out to get their revenge on him. This time the menace is Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), a Spanish Navy Captain, whom a young Jack Sparrow caused the events that led to Salazar's nightmarish curse.
Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) is also back and causes a wedge between Sparrow and Salazar. And the two newcomers, Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) and Henry (Brenton Thwaites) make a charming hero/heroine duo that do not try to mimic Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly. Full of action, close-calls, battles of ships and swords, you have all that you need for an amazing adventure.
This is a brilliant return to the franchise that is more grounded and level-headed than the last two films. The film also ends on a surprisingly heartfelt note. Welcome back pirates, thank you for bringing back the fun of the first adventure.
Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales sails into theaters May 26th!
Find out where you can watch it in Dolby Cinema at AMC by using the link: https://www.amctheatres.com/
