Another fact about yours truly: I am a certified PADI scuba diver. There were a number of reasons why I learned to do it, but I never regretted doing it. It is amazing to be in a totally different world we were not meant to be in, even for a short time, and there are a few places I would love to scuba dive like The Great Barrier Reef, the Maldives, and of course The Caribbean.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is the new film directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (Marco Polo, Kon-Tiki) and returns stars Johnny Depp (Blow, Public Enemies), Geoffrey Rush (Shakespeare in Love, Lowdown) while adding Javier Bardem (Skyfall, The Gunman), Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent, Gods of Egypt), and Kayla Scodelario (The Maze Runner, Moon). This Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) is being pursued by a ghost pirate named Captain Salazar (Bardem). At the same time, Jack meets up with Henry (Thwaites) and Carina (Scolelario) who are all in the pursuit of The Trident of Poseidon, which will remove all sea curses.
Going in, there is the expectation of a ton of CGI and special effects in this film, and they did deliver. There were so many beautiful scenes that put me in visual overload more than a few times. The CGI is so real that you forget over time that it is GGI at many times, including some great stuff underwater. We were able to screen this in IMAX 3-D, which did really enhance the film overall, but I am not 100% sure it is worth the extra cost. When it comes to the acting, you are getting a lot of the same cast from the past films in this series, with Depp and Rush always doing what they do. But the additions of Bardem, Thwaites, and Scodelario are also great as well.
At just over 2 hours long, this felt just a little too long but not bad. The only real issue I have with this film and many others from this series is the plot can get a little too complicated on who is on each other’s side. For instance, this person double crosses this person while that person double crosses the other, or two enemies make a temporary alliance, etc., which happened a little in this film again. I like the good comedy added in, which makes these films are always fun to watch. This film is not the best in the series, but still worth seeing. Be aware that there is a tag scene at the very end of the credits, which you may expect, and I will recommend this film as a mid afternoon showing in the theaters.