Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

As Captain Armando Salazar, Javier Bardem is cracked of face and glaucomic of eye, with the darkest of blood for spittle, and hair floating around him as if he were still submerged underwater. Salazar and his ghostly crew, all of whom sport one or more missing body parts, are one of the many hunting down Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in the surprisingly enjoyable Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales or Salazar's Revenge (its title in international markets).

The fifth installment of the 14-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean franchise certainly clears the low bar set by 2011's On Stranger Tides, though it comes nowhere near the irreverent verve and sheer fun of The Curse of the Black Pearl, which introduced us to Depp's now iconic Sparrow, the perpetually soused, charmingly lascivious, rock star-meets-pirate that was such an original creation that it nabbed Depp a slew of prizes, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The novelty has long worn off, having curdled into caricature right around 2007's At World's End, but Depp as Sparrow remains an ever watchable presence.

Dead Men Tell No Tales, scripted by Jeff Nathanson, begins with young Henry Turner telling his father Will (Orlando Bloom) that he has found a way to break him from the curse that condemns him and his ship The Flying Dutchman to the bottom of the sea. The key, Will's son insists, is finding the Trident of Poseidon, which Will tells his boy is nothing but a myth. Henry refuses to give up on bringing his father back home and, nine years later, the stars align to bring him closer to his quest.

Just like his father, Henry (Brenton Thwaites, a wan imitation of Bloom) crosses paths with Sparrow and a young lass by the name of Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario, as plucky as Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Swann, though perhaps taking the role a mite too seriously), a feisty astrologist and horologist accused of witchcraft who has her own reasons for wanting to find the Trident. So does Sparrow's former first mate Barbarossa (Geoffrey Rush), whose fleet and riches are being threatened by Salazar and his crew, who were freed from the Devil's Triangle when Sparrow traded in his mystical compass for a drink. Barbarossa strikes an accord with Salazar: spare his men and he'll lead him to Sparrow. Naturally, a pirate's word holds only as long as the next double cross, so Barbarossa plays both sides, striking a deal with Sparrow to help him against Salazar if Sparrow can lead him to the Trident.

Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, whose seafaring adventure epic Kon-Tiki was nominated for a 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, don't do much to thin the bloat that seems part and parcel of every Pirates film, but they do excel in executing set pieces that would probably translate nicely into a theme park ride. This is not necessarily a backhanded compliment: a bank robbery early in the film is a well-staged example of chaotic spectacle that would make Buster Keaton proud. The last third of the film is especially outstanding, with a glittering island and a Ten Commandments-style sequence as its highlights.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Directed by: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg

Written by: Jeff Nathanson

Starring: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario, Kevin McNally, Stephen Graham, David Wenham, Golshifteh Farahani, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley