Captain Jack Sparrow is pursued by bad luck and a ghost captain: The Disney adventure “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge” was supposed to usher in a new phase of the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” saga. Instead, it gave us a dramatic break…
When the new instalment of a successful franchise contains a clear cliffhanger and the people responsible profess to be planning another sequel even before the film is released…. Well, then fans have nothing to fear, do they? The future of the film series is certainly guaranteed! Well, “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge” unfortunately proved that it is not that simple…
Often simply titled “Pirates of the Caribbean 5”, the pirate adventure was released in the summer of 2017. Since then, 15 (!) new films have been launched in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while the “Pirates” saga has congealed. Although I am one of those people who rather like the film, I can’t kid myself: Disney brought this on themselves. But that doesn’t change the fact that you can treat yourself to Part 5 once again: “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge” is on Sat.1 tonight, 11 December 2022, starting at 8.15 p.m. Alternatively, you can stream the film at Disney+:
JACK SPARROW GETS SLOWED DOWN – THIS IS “PIRACY OF THE CARIBBEAN 5”!
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is down on his luck and turns his crew against him. When, dejected, he even parts with his magic compass for a drop of rum, he makes his situation even worse: the thoughtless act ensures that the spirit of the bloodthirsty pirate hunter Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem) is released. Captain Jack can only hope that his latest acquaintances, astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) and Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), a man of integrity, will side with him instead of pursuing their own goals…
In the course of this adventure filmed by directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg in gritty, dirty imagery, we also meet Sparrow’s old nemesis Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who is haughtier than ever. Orlando Bloom as Will Turner and the old sea dog Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally) also drop in. In addition, a new character is introduced in the form of the sea witch Shansa (Golshifteh Farahani), who is literally crying out to play a bigger role in upcoming films.
On paper, this sounds promising, especially since Rønning stated before the film’s release that in his eyes “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” is “just the beginning of the final adventure” around Captain Sparrow. Likewise, producer Jerry Bruckheimer gave hope that the franchise would continue in a timely manner. But then “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge” set sail and steered the Disney company towards a dilemma:
With worldwide box-office takings of just under 795 million dollars, “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” by no means suffered shipwreck, but fell far short of parts 2 to 4. This was especially due to the US market, where a miserable 172 million dollars were earned for a film of this size. A deep fall for Pirates, which once set US records. All the worse that they were in desperate need of a hit, as the budget of “Salazar’s Revenge” skyrocketed to dizzying heights due to production delays co-created by the lead actor.
Disney must have felt like the deer in the headlights: The Pirates Of The Caribbean brand continued to be too valuable to abandon. But it was losing traction so rapidly that they were well advised to question existing plans for the future. The sometimes bilious US reviews will have intensified this feeling, as will the divided reaction of fans to the cliffhanger hidden after the credits:
The implied return of a grandiose villain in equal measure to surprised gasps and annoyed snorts that the character should be left alone. The fact that the former box-office magnet Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” seems off the rails, as if he were just a Jack Sparrow impersonator, rounded off the crisis of meaning of this film series unattractively.
In other words: there was trouble in the Caribbean paradise even before Johnny Depp went from being the walking figurehead of the film series to a permanent guest in court and in the tabloid media. The Depp case has made everything worse, but let’s face it: the phase of brooding rumination that Disney and Bruckheimer are currently in would have been long behind us if Pirates of the Caribbean 5 had been a bigger crowd-pleaser.
