Yahoo News Pirates 5 review: Come back, it's good!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge is one of the surprises of the summer blockbuster season so far.
Six years after the forgettable On Stranger Tides, Salazar's Revenge –AKA Dead Men Tell No Tales in the US – sails into cinemas on a wave of apathy, with the most notable thing about the build-up being that bizarre story of Johnny Depp and his dogs.
But Salazar's Revenge quickly reminds you why we all fell in love with Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow and his drunken exploits in the first place.
Instead of the convoluted plots that weighed down the previous sequels, Pirates 5 opts for a streamlined approach that centres on a good old-fashioned quest for buried treasure – and the result is the best Pirates of the Caribbean sequel yet.
Kicking off with an extended prologue, we're introduced to a 12-year-old Henry Turner (Lewis McGowan) as he tracks down his cursed father Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) on the Flying Dutchman.
Fast-forward nine years and Henry (Brenton Thwaites) is in a spot of bother, on board a ship that's being destroyed by Spanish Navy Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem) and his ghost crew. He wants Henry to track down Captain Jack Sparrow so Salazar can be freed from the Devil's Triangle and seek his revenge against the man who, decades before, was responsible for his curse.
Determined to free his father, Henry teams up with Jack and determined astronomer Carina (Kaya Scodelario) to find a MacGuffin that could end all curses at sea. But can they get to it before Jack's past comes back to literally haunt him?
Aided by the shortest running time of the series to date, that quest is consistently entertaining and, at its best, Salazar's Revenge feels as fresh as The Curse of the Black Pearl did in 2003. This is especially felt in its inventive set pieces, backed by the iconic Pirates theme, which focus on witty character beats instead of explosions, although it's not short of a zombie shark or two.
Bardem's Salazar proves to be a strong and creepy villain as well, with his superbly designed ghost crew reminiscent of the cursed Black Pearl pirates. Through Salazar, we get a glimpse into Jack's past, with the movie filling in his backstory. We were sceptical of the de-aged Jack in the trailer, but the CGI is excellent, on a par with the work done in Captain America: Civil War with Tony Stark.
He is outshone by fellow newcomer Scodelario though, with the feisty Carina anything but a damsel in distress. Smarter than all the men around her, she's the real lead of the movie and the strongest female character of the series, even if Carina is sidelined slightly in the climax. Spare a thought for Thwaites, though, who's lumbered with a wet blanket of a role as Henry is not fleshed out beyond his connection to Will. This means that when he's given his inevitable hero moment, it falls flat.
Still, with the return of Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Gibbs (Kevin McNally), Scrum (Stephen Graham) and co, you'll be having too much fun hanging out with the Black Pearl crew again to be bothered by one misstep. Even Depp puts the effort in and, crucially, doesn't make it the Jack Sparrow show. Our long-running connection with the characters also means the movie has emotional depth, with one big moment likely to bring tears.
But will we see these characters again? Though a post-credits scene teases otherwise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge acts as both a series finale and a soft reboot of the franchise. The box office will decide what happens next although if this is the end, Captain Jack Sparrow is sailing out on a high.
Directors: Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg; Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson; Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Javier Bardem, David Wenham, Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites, Orlando Bloom; Running time: 129 minutes; Certificate: 12A
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