Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Talent: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Javier Bardem, Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites
Released: 25th May
In case you didn’t get enough pirates in the first four Pirates of the Caribbean films, here’s a fifth. Henry (Thwaites)’s father is cursed to live under the sea on the Flying Dutchman. The only way to break such a sea curse is by using Poseidon’s Trident, located in the Devil’s Triangle, which is tricky, as no man can read the map to locate said Triangle. Undeterred, young Henry resolves to find the trident. In comes astronomer and horologist, Carina Smyth (Scodelario). As she is not a man, she can read the arcane map, leading the way to the Triangle, and must exclusively wear low-cut dresses.
Because of some legend or other, Henry knows that Jack Sparrow (Depp) is in possession of the compass which he needs in his quest to find the trident. Jack Sparrow, Carina and Henry find each other and go off to find the trident, along with another pirate called Barbossa (Rush). Enter Salazar (Bardem): a spooky-cool-looking zombie-ghost-mummy pirate guy who is cursed to live in the sea as well! He comes along to hunt down Jack to exact revenge for killing him. Not wanting to be left out, the British Empire get in on the race to the trident, creating a fun treasure hunt where different people are bargaining for their life.
There are many main characters, lots going on and lots of back stories crammed in here. Were it not for the interesting and surprisingly unpredictable moments in the film, this would be a problem. But instead, with its visually detailed and beautiful world (albeit one that is at times unnecessarily loud and noisy) and excitement and atmosphere injected into every scene, the film doesn’t suffer this complexity to hamper one’s enjoyment of proceedings.
Though annoyingly misogynistic in parts, and painfully predictable when the two conventionally good-looking characters kiss, this latest Pirates of the Caribbean incarnation is a lot of fun.
Words: Sarah Taaffe-Maguire
