Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Review

Personally, I am a very big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and have grown up watching each of the subsequent movies. A couple of days ago I watched the last film of the series, Dead Men Tell No Tales, and was pleasantly surprised. When sequels are created for popular movies, it is usually a hit or miss with their quality. The Pirates of the Caribbean brand has done extremely well with their sequel franchise, yet went on the downhill with On Stranger Tides. The upsetting review of On Stranger Tides left me skeptical of the last film, but after I watched it I thought it was a perfect way to end everything.

One of the things I enjoyed the most from the film was how it incorporated new primary characters while keeping the original ones. It was extremely interesting how the story line dealt with Will Turner's son and Captain Barbosa's daughter leading the charge to bring justice to their fathers. With Henry Turner, the plot was a continuation from the third movie where Will Turner was sentenced a life on the Flying Dutchman and separated from his beloved wife, Elizabeth Swann. The ending of Dead Men Tell No Tales was my favorite part of the film because it brings closure to all of those "Will and Elizabeth" fans when they finally reunite. It also brings closure to the entire series of Pirates of the Caribbean because Jack is back in his natural place at the helm of a ship with his crew by his side. The final thing that I enjoyed about the movie was the comedy relief that accompanied it. It seems that no matter how serious the situation, the comedy of Jack Sparrow never fails to peek through (its also an indicator that when Jack isn't cracking jokes something is really wrong).

To touch on the villainy aspect, I believe this film takes evil to a whole new level. In this case the villain is Captain Salazar who is the symbolization of Death. Death is seeking the life of any pirate that raids the sea, but most specifically Captain Jack Sparrow. What was most revealing to me about Captain Salazar was his appearance. He had gashes coming out of his head, he had a very pale complexion, his coloring was jet black and white, he had a decaying appearance and he had black blood seeping out of his mouth. To be frank I would hope that he is the villain in the movie. Since this film is dealing with Pirates it is often a difficult task to differentiate good from evil because Pirates appear and are "evil" as well. I believe that Captain Salazar was an adequate representation of evil because his dark features were so prominent. Overall, I really enjoyed watching this sinister character and what he brought to the table. It also was helpful when the backstory of Captain Salazar was given so the viewers realized why he became evil. It connected well with the stereotypical Villains of Disney and how this character broke those stereotypes.

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