I have to begin with saying that I haven’t always been a massive fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. For me, after the third film they just seemed to become quite repetitive and lack any real sense of plot or motive. So, it wasn’t surprising that when I first heard that they were making another one I was less than impressed. In fact, I believe I promised myself that I wouldn’t go and see this fifth(? I’ve literally lost count) instalment of a franchise that had already died out years ago. And then the news broke. Not only were they introducing a whole new set of characters, but, they were bringing back Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, two of the best characters from the original trilogy.
It was clear that after the very weak performance of the fourth instalment, On Stranger Tides, that the Pirates of the Caribbean team were going to have to pull out all the stops to revitalise such a doomed franchise. And to be honest I think they succeeded. Will and Elizabeth were both integrated back into the story nicely, and whilst it would have been nice to see a bit more of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, when they were the main focal point of the press releases for this film, the plot allowed for the newer characters to have their deserved introductions.
One thing that stood out for me, however, was the fact that the plot basically mirrored that of the first film in the franchise The Curse of the Black Pearl. The original film came out in 2003 so you would hope the franchise would have moved on in 14 years. Sadly not. Whilst this was an interesting and, if not, nostalgic way of revitalising the franchise, it did, at times, make the plot seem quite repetitive and boring. Once again we are following a boy looking for his father, a girl looking for adventure and freedom and chuck in an alcoholic pirate and you have the basic plot for both the first and fifth instalment in the series. I’ve seen quite a few people online argue that this is probably the best way to restore the Gore Verbinski style of the original film, for me it just made the film really repetitive.
I also feel as if they didn’t really do the title villain justice. Salazar, an undead Spanish pirate hunter, had so much potential to be one of the best Pirates of the Caribbean villains yet. The whole flashback scenes, which featured a very young Captain Jack Sparrow, were probably some of the more interesting scenes as they not only gave us a backstory to how Sparrow became so infamous on the seas but also created a genuine and believable motive for the villain. Instead, Salazar was reduced to almost a filler, a subplot that lacked any real development unlike the main plot centred around Henry Turner’s quest to find his father.
Overall, whilst this instalment of the franchise has paved the way for a better and brighter future for Pirates of the Caribbean, its similarities with the first film and its insistence of not developing new characters made it repetitive and, at times, boring. I hope the next instalment, which looks like it will include another old face, will be better.
