User blog comment:Uskok/Dead Men Tell No Tales Review/@comment-1984959-20170615175506

Sorry for my tardiness! Had to actually see the "final adventure" (if we need to call it that) for myself before I took part in anything. Before I get to my brief-ish review, to comment on some of your points, like always...

''It's not majestic like the Dutchman's first appearance in Dead Man's Chest, but it's close enough. And the scene looks like a promise of a wonderful movie, until the first problem appears. We see the stern of the Dutchman, and you can see the name of the ship on the stern gallery. Whose bright idea was to put the name there? That detail was never there in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End! Oh dear.''
 * The whelp hadn't been captain for 10 years...and the ship's ruined! That's what I'd think the Dutchman crew would say. But in all seriousness, it was a very, very small eyesore as someone who did look at the Dutchman ship's details. But it was good to see the special effects of it again.

''All in all, the movie didn't show us almost anything new. Even the ending scene was just a mixture of endings of At World's End and The Curse of the Black Pearl. The Spanish ghosts, the Silent Mary, and the ghost sharks were awesome, but the rest of the movie far outweighs any freshness they brought.''
 * I'd be a fool if not agree to this. But at the same time I was content with the film's ending. My only complaint there will be that the film implies the already-finished multiple times Will/Elizabeth story is STILL not over! But I did like the Jack sailing in the horizon ending as an ending should be, in a sense of I didn't need another film. Not that I don't want more, mind you, but one of my problems with OST was that I  needed  another film&mdash;Black Pearl in a bottle? No thank you, show me what happens!
 * And I don't have it quoted here (as it was in the section), but is worth noting: the film's music was a MAJOR improvement over On Stranger Tides. Was it mostly rehashed soundtracks? Yes, I guess that's what standalone films are for. But it wasn't as mind-numbing as hearing Davy Jones' soundtrack in the British town of London. It did feel a little weird hearing Jack's intro music used in the trilogy used EVERYWHERE instead of just his first appearance.

To skim through the other topics... The series of historical inaccuracies and continuity and such don't bother me as much. As for the little things (like how Henry got to St. Martins), as some bloody pirates would say, "sea turtles". But I will agree that there were a LOT of things in this movie that had me scratching my head...was this movie made by the same people or anyone who was truly devoted to the franchise? Or was it just "Wow, this movie's good. I can make a better one even though 9/10 of the film are not in line with canon" And I'm not talking about book canon (though seems apparent) but continuity established in FOUR films! Especially when I saw the differences between what we knew having devoted to the Pirates trilogy, and what we ended up getting with this new film. Bottom line, as Uskok appropriately said, Dead Men Tell No Tales had more questions than answers.

Shansa the sea witch was fine, Carina Smyth (while I think Elizabeth was better in some cases) was a good character. The new British threat Scarfield seems interesting only because of who they got to portray him. Barbossa most definitely stole the show..."Pirate's life, Hector", 'nuff said. And despite my bitter hatred of Turner-related storyline taking center stage, I was fine with what we ended up getting. And as much as I want this to be THE end for them, the after credits scene shows otherwise.

Like Uskok said, Dead Men Tell No Tales isn't bad. In fact, as with On Stranger Tides, I have a love/hate thing with both films. OST had the better story, but the style could've been done WAY better. DMTNT had great style, but the story feels a little muddled here and there. Both films are mixed in terms of our expectations, I'm sure, but in regards to the film in question, Dead Men Tell No Tales is a must-see and (mostly in some cases) a step-up.

Other topics I failed to mention and don't know where to place them...
 * 1) Rønning and Sandberg &mdash; the directing duo did not disappoint in my honest opinion...mostly, given most of our reactions to DMTNT. In fact, I kind of wish that they took the job 10 years ago so I could've seen how different OST could've been, even though I liked the film we ended up with, I feel special effects, music, and humor were the key to a great Pirates movie. No offense to Rob Marshall, as I did like his contribution to the franchise, but I felt like (despite certain issues) DMTNT was given a little more love and care.
 * 2) Humor &mdash; As I implied before, the jokes in this movie were superior and made me wonder if Gore Verbinski came on set for a day or gave some notes. Seriously, I felt like I laughed more for DMTNT than OST, and that despite Scrum having good moments before, I think he shined in this film. Minor spoiler, Gibbs making Scrum captain was probably one of my favorite highlights of the film.
 * 3) Angelica &mdash; I went to this film with a friend and he wondered about Angelica. He even mistakenly though Angelica and Shansa were one and the same character...he didn't look on here, apparently. lol But I do feel a tad bummed that the Angelica stinger got no payoff, especially when the villain Salazar was Penélope Cruz' husband Javier Bardem!
 * 4) Pre-2017 info &mdash; Ok, maybe only 2-3 of you will know what I say when I mean...I'm throwing my notes away! (throws in paper shredder) Having watched the film, it seems like most of my intel of the franchise AS OF NOW may be inaccurate. Not all, but mainly Barbossa and the infamous Sword of Triton. DMTNT seems to confirm Barbossa knew of the embottled Pearl and that there is no secrets or cons being made between Jack having the bottle and Barbossa having a Sword that was supposed to have had a sapphire of Triton (relating to Trident of Poseidon). Kinda felt like I had to do my research for this information for nothing! But I guess that's what happens if one does digging outside of the films or any official content...Bugger!