It’s been six years since the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and fans of the Johnny Depp-led Disney franchise have been anxiously awaiting the fifth installment. Much to their excitemet, Dead Men Tell No Tales opens in theaters this coming weekend.
Heading into Memorial Day, audiences around the world are wondering what they can expect from the upcoming adventure film. Each film in the franchise has delivered a little bit less heart than the one before, but they’ve all managed to make a few bucks along the way.
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Isn’t this dilemma exactly what critics are for?
The embargo for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has finally been lifted, and the critics are beginning to chime in with their reviews.
After looking through the first few pieces, it’s tough to say what you’ll be able to expect from the new Pirates film. The reviews are a fairly mixed bag. Some say that the movie is a return to form for Depp & Co., others says that it’s the final nail in the coffin of a dying franchise.
Here are a few of the most notable reviews for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Variety (Andrew Barker)
Variety’s review had the opinion that Dead Men Tell No Tales was at the bottom of the Pirates food chain.
“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.”
Read Variety’s Full Review Here.
THR (John DeFore)
The Hollywood Reporter wasn’t exactly jazzed up about Dead Men Tell No Tales either, but the review found a lot more positivity than the last one did. DeFore said there was a familiar feel to the movie that franchise fans would love.
“Depp remains wholeheartedly the focus of this fifth Pirates film, and saying the character’s loopy novelty has faded is like complaining that there are maggots in the below-decks gruel: You knew what you were getting when you came aboard. Despite its limp zingers and a phoned-in star performance, this episode — directed with little distinction by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, of 2012’s Kon-Tiki — hits enough familiar notes to continue its predecessors’ commercial success, keeping a small city’s worth of VFX artists employed until Depp decides he can’t be bothered any more.”
Read The Hollywood Reporter’s Full Review Here.
USA Today (Brian Truitt)
Unlike the first two reviews, USA Today’s Brian Truitt felt that Dead Men Tell No Tales was a true return to form for the aging franchise. This easily goes down as the most positive review so far.
“After three movies of diminishing quality and a wholly forgettable fourth chapter, Disney’s buccaneer-filled franchise rights the ship with fifth installment Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (*** out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters nationwide Thursday night). Johnny Depp’s drunken Captain Jack Sparrow stumbles into yet another seafaring adventure, which has its rocky moments but also offers an engaging tale with family legacies, above-average swashbuckling and a fantastic new villain courtesy of Javier Bardem.”
Read USA Today’s Full Review Here.
Mashable (Angie Han)
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Angie Han of Mashable thought that Dead Men Tell No Tales had no reason to exist. Seriously, one quote genuinely says that the film “fails to justify its own existence in any way whatsoever.” Ouch.
“Depp, whose work in the first Pirates was so revelatory, gives the kind of performance that serves as a depressing reminder of how far he’s fallen since then. It’s not bad, exactly – he goes through all the motions and mostly gets them right – but it doesn’t feel like there’s anything like real person under all those tics and accessories. I’d say it seems like he’s phoning it in, but we learned recently that he basically is.”
Read Mashable’s Full Review Here.
