Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge

For the past decade or so, the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise has been living, lumbering proof of Hollywood at its most excessive and profit-oriented.

- Shawne Wang

It’s hard not to look at the three films following the sublime Curse Of The Black Pearl as shameless money-making opportunities – the budgets grew bigger and the action sequences more extravagant, sure, but the plots also became more convoluted and forgettable.

One would be forgiven for assuming that Salazar’s Revenge, the fifth and purportedly final Pirates instalment, is every bit as bloated, clunky and (largely) free of artistic merit. Surprisingly, that’s not the case. While Salazar’s Revenge does suffer from some of the franchise’s most pervasive problems, it’s a fun, perfectly decent blockbuster that remembers to add some very welcome heart and soul back into its story and characters.

The film opens on Henry Turner (Thwaites), now a young man determined to free his dad Will (Bloom) from his cursed servitude as the ghost captain of The Flying Dutchman. Henry’s quest prompts him to seek the help of Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) as he hunts for the Trident of Poseidon, the magical MacGuffin that can undo the many nautical curses plaguing the high seas. Along the way, Henry’s fate becomes entangled with that of astronomer extraordinaire Carina Smyth (Scodelario), who is the key to deciphering the map that points the true way to the Trident.