POTC: Dead Men Tell No Tales- Saw this was on Netflix, and figured, I'd give it a shot. After 15 minuets I was bored and stopped watching, then yesterday my kids begged me to watch it, so we did...all the way through...I don't think I laughed once. Johnny Depp didn't even seem to care despite the fact it had been 6 years since the last film. (The longest gap of any time in the series). You'd think with more time, they'd come up with a more compelling story. While many disliked the 4th film, I actually appreciated its fresh take, and new characters. I wanted to see what happened with the young priest & the Mermaid, and what about Blackbeard's daughter?...(Penelope Cruz is beautiful...)
. But no, we go back to Will Turner, more specifically his son, who is somehow 20, I haven't sought out a timeline for this series, but I don't think I want to. I think they messed up bad in this one, especially with the reveal at the end (thankfully Bloom is only onscreen for a couple of minutes, and Keira Knightly even less, and has no dialogue
)- that was probably the most reassuring thing. I agree with most that the 4th film was wholly unnecessary, but it did set up a lot of good story points that were all but dropped in this 5th film for some odd reason. Instead we get more convoluted Jack Sparrow backstory, and the villain Capt Salazar had the same gross Teeth-Goo problem Danny DeVito's Penguin did, so he was hard to look at. HUGE PLOT HOLE #1 ---If giving up the Compass sets Salazar free, why did this not occur in any of the previous films when Jack gave up the compass? HUGE PLOT HOLE #2 -At the end it stated that "All Curses on the Sea" are lifted, so -no more curses, no more magic etc...So...How can Davy Jones be back? Even if he came back to life somehow, he would not be cursed...??? Or am I missing something?
what can I say? - This was a franchise that started off so entertaining and humorous. ALL of these big franchises I think are suffering from the law of diminishing returns. It's kind of like Pizza. The first slice is great, the 2nd is even better, by the 3rd you are usually full and ready to stop.
Sometimes... if you are super-hungry you may go for a 4th, but you usually regret it later. It's a simple formula, but it works. I think trilogies really are the best way to go about things. If you want to make more films afterwards, give the franchise a break, give the audience time to reflect on how much they like what they had, then maybe come back in 10+ years and see if there is interest. Now it seems they want to give you one every year, until you are so sick of it, you never want to see it again. Then again I cant blame some studios, they see international box office now as their potential, not just the US anymore. But even across the globe they are catching on, it usually just takes an extra film or two. Pirates 5, and Transformers 5, while not being financial failures, both performed way under expectations due to lack of support form international markets. Hopefully this will make studios begin to rethink their strategies and understand that even in other places, eventually they get sick of the same old thing, and want something different.
There are no more good TV Shows, only ones that haven't disappointed me yet.