Set five years after the occurrences in the franchise’s previous movie At World’s End, Deal Men Tell No Tales, or Salazar’s Revenge depending on who you ask, is the story of Henry (Brenton Thwaites), who is looking for the mythical Trident Of Poseidon, which he believes can free his father from a curse he has been afflicted with. When he is on board a British warship which is attacked by a strange ship captained by seemingly dead sailors, Henry is spared by Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) in order to convey a message to Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), that his days are numbered as Salazar is coming for him.

On the island of Saint Martin, Henry locates Sparrow in jail and with some assistance from an astronomer, Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), who also needs to leave the island, they formulate a plan to free Sparrow and chase the legend of the Trident, each for their own purpose.

When Depp burst onto the scene with his Oscar nominated performance as Sparrow, it was novel and refreshing, the character was mysterious as it was never clear if he was genuinely imbalanced or just playing that way as a misdirection. Slowly it’s changed to where the character has now become a bumbling drunkard who seems to rely on luck to save the day with none of the cunning traits which gave him legendary status being apparent. This time around it’s almost like the Sparrow character is playing as a parody of himself, he had his moments here, but they were very sparse.

Both Thwaites and Scolelario are decent as the support characters and, when given moments to shine, they usually hit the mark but there is not a lot of depth to what they are required to do. Scolelario has the better moments and, there were occasions in certain scenes when she looked remarkably reminiscent of a young Nicole Kidman, although there is a recurring theme joke about her being a witch, just because she is intelligent, which got repetitive and irritating very quickly.

Bardem was excellent as the zombie Captain, over acting and looking like he was enjoying himself which added great character and depth to Salazar, even if his screen time was limited, and move over Keith Richards as this movies musical star cameo is taken by Paul McCartney, you’ll spot him easily enough.

One big plus for the movie is another great score, this time with Geoff Zanelli taking over the composition duties from Hans Zimmer. If one thing has been consistent through the varied quality of these movies, the music has always been memorable and instantly recognisable. Once those French horns kick in, you know you’re hitting the high seas for an adventure.

Although the movie was one of the shortest in the franchise it still felt over long, perhaps because the first two acts were quite slow moving so when it came to the final section and the best of the action kicked in, it felt like I had been waiting a long time for it to occur and the movie had lost most of my interest.

This is one that the kids will probably enjoy, there are moments of humour but not enough to entertain the adults, some of the CGI is great, the ships and settings look superb and at least there is a purposeful plot this time so it’s a step back in the right direction after the slow decline into mediocrity that the movies have taken since the second entry. It still feels like a dying franchise but as long as it is making money keep your eyes peeled for the inevitable announcement of the casting for the next instalment.

DJ Speaks Movies: 5 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2017