Review Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales: (2017)

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
(also known as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge outside the US)[4] is an upcoming American fantasy swashbuckler film, and the fifth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg from a script by Jeff Nathanson, with Jerry Bruckheimer serving again as producer. Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally, and Geoffrey Rush reprise their roles as Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, and Hector Barbossa, respectively. The film also stars Javier Bardem as Armando Salazar, Brenton Thwaites as Henry, and Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth. The film also features the return of Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, following his absence from the fourth installment, On Stranger Tides.

The filmmakers cited the first installment, The Curse of the Black Pearl, as inspiration for the script and tone of the film.[5][6] Pre-production for the film started shortly before On Stranger Tides was released in early 2011, with Terry Rossio writing a script for the film. In early 2013, Jeff Nathanson was hired to write a new script, with Depp being involved in Nathanson's writing process. Initially planned for a 2015 release, the film was delayed to 2016 and then to 2017, due to script and budget issues. Principal photography started in Australia in February 2015, after the Australian government offered Disney $20 million of tax incentives, and ended in July 2015. It is set to be released in conventional, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats on May 26, 2017.



 
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Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (also known as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge outside the US)[4] is an upcoming American fantasy swashbuckler film, and the fifth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg from a script by Jeff Nathanson, with Jerry Bruckheimer serving again as producer. Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally, and Geoffrey Rush reprise their roles as Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, and Hector Barbossa, respectively. The film also stars Javier Bardem as Armando Salazar, Brenton Thwaites as Henry, and Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth. The film also features the return of Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, following his absence from the fourth installment, On Stranger Tides.

The filmmakers cited the first installment, The Curse of the Black Pearl, as inspiration for the script and tone of the film.[5][6] Pre-production for the film started shortly before On Stranger Tides was released in early 2011, with Terry Rossio writing a script for the film. In early 2013, Jeff Nathanson was hired to write a new script, with Depp being involved in Nathanson's writing process. Initially planned for a 2015 release, the film was delayed to 2016 and then to 2017, due to script and budget issues. Principal photography started in Australia in February 2015, after the Australian government offered Disney $20 million of tax incentives, and ended in July 2015. It is set to be released in conventional, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats on May 26, 2017.



Is it wrong of me to wonder if this is going to end up being the "seafaring" equivalent of the countless "Jason" movies (Fri. the 13th) or the "Naked Gun" ad nauseum? Not that this isn't a great cast or that the originals weren't great but to me there comes a point when I just have to ask... "Really?... Again?" and just sigh in resignation.....
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Paul McCartney’s “Pirates” Look Revealed


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Legendary musician Paul McCartney has tweeted a poster of himself today in character as he appears in the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”.

McCartney makes a cameo as ‘Jail Guard #2’ in this fifth and potential final installment in the Disney Pictures franchise. Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow, alongside Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush and Javier Bardem.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” opens May 26th in conventional, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Film Review: ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’


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The "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise steers off-course in this drab fifth entry.
When Disney first announced plans to build a feature film out of its venerable Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there was little reason to expect anything more than a grab for quick cash and a few Disneyland cross-promotional opportunities. To just about everyone’s surprise, Gore Verbinski’s 2003 “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” was an inspired piece of old-school popcorn entertainment; more clever, more fun, and fundamentally riskier than it had any right to be.

Now, 14 years and four films later, the “Pirates” franchise has finally delivered exactly what cynics had expected all along. Containing only the faintest traces of the spark that turned this once unpromising idea into a nearly four billion-dollar enterprise, Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is a mercenary, visually unappealing exercise in brand maintenance. The franchise has lost a bit of its luster with every successive installment, but never has a “Pirates” film felt this inessential, this depressingly pro forma. It will surely make money, and the estimated wait times for its namesake ride will spike in Disney parks worldwide. But considering the quality of some of the other big-money franchises in Disney’s fleet, “Pirates” needs to make a far better case for its seaworthiness if it expects to see future voyages.





After the triumph of “Black Pearl,” the two Verbinski-directed sequels grew ever more bloated and obsessed with their own cod-mythology as they went; the fourth film, directed by Rob Marshall, reined in some of its predecessors’ more lumbering tendencies, yet seemed to leave the franchise with nowhere to go. Hence, the studio has resorted to a “soft reboot,” which in this case means mimicking the structure and story beats of the series’ first installment, with markedly diminished returns.

Once again serving as both protagonist and comic relief, Johnny Depp reprises his role as drunken, dissolute, sporadically decipherable pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. His performance here is no better and no worse than in his previous two or three outings, though what once was a bracingly anarchic approach is starting to feel a bit old hat, like a standup comic rehashing vintage punchlines for cheers of recognition, rather than laughs.

(One hesitates to delve too deeply into Depp’s offscreen scandals, but a key factor in “Pirates’” success was the way Sparrow both melded with and exemplified Depp’s early-2000s reputation as Hollywood’s most beloved iconoclast. Now that his public image is less rosy, audience indulgence of his idiosyncrasies might be less forgiving.)

Once again, Sparrow begins the film attempting a heist, and subsequently facing imminent execution at the hands of some dour British soldiers. And once again, he makes the acquaintance of two straight-arrow youngsters. This time, his sidekicks are Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), son of the first trilogy’s Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley); and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a defiant, proto-feminist astronomer accused of witchcraft. The film gives these two precious little to play, but considering their broad physical resemblances and virtually identical character types, it’s hard not to compare Thwaites’ and Scodelario’s performances to Bloom’s and Knightley’s in the first “Pirates,” and the comparison does them no favors.

Succinct plotting has never been among the “Pirates” films’ virtues, so suffice it to say that all three have various reasons to seek the film’s central MacGuffin: The Trident of Poseidon, which has the power to undo curses. Standing in their way is a fearsome band of undead Spanish sailors lead by “el matador del mar,” Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem), who is soon joined by Sparrow nemesis Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Subjects of the film’s most striking visual effects, some of Salazar’s partially mutilated ghouls look terrifying, while others look like incompletely-buffered Playstation 2 characters.

Lackluster as it is, “Dead Men Tell No Tales” is not an aggressively unpleasant time at the cinema. An early scene featuring an unusually literal bank robbery is well staged and entertaining, establishing a high watermark of spectacle that the film never again threatens to reach. The luminous Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani hams it up enjoyably as a heavily henna’ed witch. Paul McCartney has a bit part as a pirate named Uncle Jack, which is fun in the sense that it makes you stop and think, “hey, that’s Paul McCartney.” Buckles are swashed, and do is derred.

But rarely is one ever swept up in the sanitized pirate fantasy that used to be the franchise’s raison d’etre – indeed, were it not for the occasional wide shots of the digitally-sweetened ocean, it would be easy to forget the film even takes place on the water. This is strange considering Ronning and Sandberg’s previous film, the Oscar-nominated “Kon-Tiki,” was set almost entirely on a boat, skillfully relying on tiny sonic details and slightly off-kilter angles to suggest a life at sea. Strikingly little of that sensibility survives here: Shot in Australia, “Dead Men Tell No Tales” rarely appears to be taking place anywhere other than a soundstage, featuring pirates posed against unnaturally hued skies, and a foggy color palette that ranges from gray to slate, gunmetal, granite, and ash.

One hopes the directors plundered enough booty on this excursion to quickly get back to what they do best. As for the series, it’s taking on water fast.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
There’s No Sixth “Pirates” Without Depp


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Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is now open worldwide and sees Johnny Depp’s return to the role of Captain Jack Sparrow after a six year gap.

There’s certainly audience interest in the film even as the critics have summarily trashed the movie and voiced a common complaint that the series has become tired and dull, including Depp’s performance which had previously been the highlight of the franchise.

Depp of course has been the subject of controversy in the years between the last two entries, not to mention his sizable paycheck, leading to questions of whether the series should either continue without him, or reboot itself.

Series producer Jerry Bruckheimer however has made it clear that the franchise will never continue without Johnny Depp:

“I just don’t see it [working on Pirates without Depp]. The secret to any successful franchise is picking talented people, and Johnny is absolutely key to the success of Pirates. He’s such a unique character, such an endearing character, and such an irreverent character all in one.

He hasn’t changed at all! That’s what’s so great about him. He’s still the same guy he was in the first one. He’s still out to get what’s good for him. Johnny himself hasn’t changed either. We’ve worked together on six movies now and he’s just an amazing individual.”

The producer also brushed aside talk of spin-offs featuring a younger Captain Jack Sparrow and any potential TV series spin-off:

“It’s always about the character, it’s never about the visual effects. Pirates has become a family now. We’ve got talented people in every position, people who have worked on them since the beginning. I think that’s one of the reasons the franchise keeps on working.”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is now open in cinemas worldwide and is targeting a global opening weekend of $285 million.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Bruckheimer: Fifth “Pirates” Was A Huge Success


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In terms of critical response, the recent “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” was an utter failure – scoring the worst reviews of the franchise. In terms of box-office though it is seen only as a disappointment.

Domestically it grossed $172 million – a long way from the $423 million of the second and $300 million of the first and third. It has been saved by international revenue though with a further $619 million from outside the U.S. – putting it on par with the second and third film in the series.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, speaking with Yahoo this week, sees the film as a success and puts its softer response down to foreign exchange rate differences and the overall slump in box-office this Summer which has claimed many victims:

“I think it did phenomenal. I mean, you’re talking about the fifth [film] in the series in a down market, and the American dollar is so strong that we’re getting less returns from foreign. This movie would’ve [made] a billion dollars had it been back in the same financial [situation as On Stranger Tides], but we lost 27% of our money just by the conversion rate… But god it’s at what, $790 [million] now? It’s amazing.”

The film is currently sitting at $792 million worldwide, making it the seventh highest grossing movie of 2017 globally. The film has certainly left itself open for another installment, but for now there’s been no talk of doing a sixth film in the series.
 
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