Pirates Of The Caribbean is the classic tale of a studio
wanting to make a film based one of their most successful theme park
attractions that, through one of the single greatest casting decisions in the
history of the medium, became one of Hollywood’s hottest properties… at first.
It seems that, between the increasing goofiness of the stories being told
combined with the increased budgetary requirements (The third and fourth
installments in the franchise currently hold the top two spots for the most
expensive films ever made), interest in the series is starting to wane. Hell,
while I found quite a bit to like about Stranger Tides, it did give the
impression that this is a franchise that is starting to beach itself.
So, with
another spin of the director’s chair and a few returning faces in the cast,
maybe this will rejuvenate the series back to its former glory. While I fiddle
around with my Blogger settings to make a large enough font to put enough
emphasis on the word “maybe”, let’s get started with today’s offering.
The plot: Undead captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), after
accidentally being set free from his confinement in the Devil’s Triangle, is
set to lead a bloody streak across the sea to find Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny
Depp), the man who freed him and who also condemned him to the Triangle in the
first place. Meanwhile, Henry (Brenton Thwaites), son of Will Turner and
Elizabeth Swann, seeks out Jack to help him find Poseidon’s Trident, an artefact
that could hold the key to ending his father’s curse. With the help of Henry
and budding astronomer Carina (Kaya Scodelario), Jack takes to the high seas
once more to get to the bottom of yet another weird situation he’s gotten
himself into.
The cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Depp is noticeably more
sloshed this time around as Captain Jack, possibly taking the character’s love
for rum to new levels of method, but given the increased aggrandizing of his
character from last time, it fits a lot better with what made the character so
engaging in the first place. Bardem is decent as the villain, even if it seems
lie the effects work on his hair is putting in more of an effort than he is in
some scenes. Thwaites is tolerable, nothing too noteworthy, and Scodelario
embodies the series’ rather weird approach to gender politics, with her
bickering next to Thwaites and Depp showing that she can sass like the best of
them.
Kevin McNally makes a welcome return as Depp’s verbal sparring partner
Gibbs, Geoffrey Rush is presented as a rather interesting take on piracy by
essentially becoming Commodore Barbossa, as was joked about in the first film,
but not only does the film not really let him take it anywhere special but the
way his character arc resolves itself is at once underwhelming and more than a
little suspect. Stephen Graham’s return as Scrum adds some nice texture to the
pirate shenanigans, and David Wenham might be the single blandest British Navy
officer the series has seen so far. Oh, and Bloom and Knightley show up too, I
guess, and their impact lasts about as long as this sentence.
If there’s one thing I don’t think anyone can fault the
series for so far, it’s the visual ambition and scale on display; thankfully,
that stays true for this latest iteration. While some of the set pieces
definitely feel lifted from elsewhere like the Fast & Furious reminiscence
of the bank robbery scene, it still engages on a purely visual level. Not only
that, it also gets rather creative in the most bonkers way possible with a
scene involving a guillotine that has to be seen to be believed; I don’t think
I’ve ever laughed harder in a public cinema.
The effects work sticks to a
tried-and-true creed of SFX wizards: Use your tools wisely. I say this because
it feels like that, whenever CGI is used, it’s done because it wouldn’t be
possible to show certain things otherwise, like the constantly-underwater
effect of Salazar and his crew. Because of this, the big and largely
destructive action beats have definable weight to them and look all the better
for it… mostly. It’s not perfect, but what makes that statement feel worse is
that when it’s bad, it’s rather perturbing. The green screening can get rather
obvious, even if the spectacle of half-decomposed zombie sharks does its best
to distract from such things, and some of the CGI shots stick out more than
they should. However, easily the biggest offender in this regard is a scene
involving a young Jack Sparrow. Using the ‘Leia at the end of Rogue One’ trick,
this film managed to reach the Uncanny Valley in a way that is kind of
impressive in its own way. Not exactly watchable, but impressive nonetheless.
Like the rest of the series, the story has some very solid
foundations to it: Sea-faring ghost stories, legends, swashbuckling jargon
brought into physical terms (much like they did with Davy Jones’ Locker in At
World’s End), tales of revenge and deceit, and the added musings about
mysticism vs. science makes for some decent opportunities for banter. However,
it is also built on the foundations of the series itself such as the offspring
of pirates and their quests to redeem their parents, and those particular
bedrocks are starting to crack. As wonky as On Stranger Tides was, it at least
knew well enough to keep its pace quick enough to stop most audiences from
dwelling on the plot details too much. Here, the film not only wants you to
have kept with the story thus far but also conveniently forget bits and pieces
of it for the sake of the current plot. It’s bad enough that you have not one
but two characters basically
rehashing Will Turner’s original story arc, but it’s made worse by how just
presents as if it’s something new. Hell, On Stranger Tides even recycled this
same idea with diminishing returns.
Jack’s place as the aloof linchpin for
everything around him is still intact, which admittedly does help with easing
the film’s stiffness, but that too starts to falter once you take into account
the situations he is in. Like, for instance, the aforementioned bank robbery,
or the wedding scene that comes so far out of left field as to have originated
from another planet entirely, or the still-lingering womanizing that is turning
rather sharply from “being slapped by all his past conquests” to “damn, he
fine” in a way that just highlights the film’s new issue concerning gender
politics. Of course, I could completely ignore such discussions and still be
left with a film that feels like it is rapidly running its course and making
the audience think that maybe it’s time to lay this beast to rest.
Or perhaps not since, even with all my aforementioned gripes
with the film, I still walked away feeling like it earned its ticket price.
Now, a large part of that has to do with the guillotine sequence that almost
serves as the other side of the coin Pan sits on in terms of initial reaction
(re: What the hell am I even looking at?), but it also has to do with the sheer
ambition of the whole affair. Going back to the more scattered chessboard
storytelling of the first three films, combined with the scale of the events
both textually and viscerally, this is basically a big rollercoaster ride of a
film.
And honestly, I see it as a ride worth taking. I mean, given how
Cutthroat Island (another hideously expensive pirate caper) put a curse on the
swashbuckling genre that still lingers to this day, it’s rare that we’ll see
the likes of this brand of piratical action on the big screen from anywhere
else. As much as this probably comes across as a beggar happy for the few
crumbs he finds on the ground, bear in mind that I rarely advocate for blind
spectacle as opposed to deep narrative and characters. Sure, the characters
here are still good, if a bit tired by this point, but film is still a visual
medium so it has the potential to appeal solely by those means. Far as I’m
concerned, this manages to do just that.
All in all, it may be feeling wizened and more than a little
bizarre (with both good and bad results), this is still a decent popcorn flick.
The acting holds up very well, the writing at least keeps things interesting if
not always coherent, the action is engaging and reaches levels of sheer lunacy
at times that make for great mindless viewing and the visuals are grandiose in
a way you would surely expect from a film with this kind of budget. While I’m a
bit hesitant to recommend the film right now, while it’s still in cinemas, I’ll
at least say that it’s worth a rental once it hits home release.
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