User blog comment:TheGoatPresident/Why the PotC sequels went wrong/@comment-122.60.25.45-20180105104730

I think another problem with the sequels (especially regarding On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales) is that, over time, they've become conventional pirate treasure-hunt movies when you look at the plot. The first movie did so well, whereas so many pirate movies had failed, because it was unusual and unconventional for a pirate film. After the old classics like Treasure Island, there were so many pirate films that were just another treasure hunt, where the pirate crew was after another chest of buried treasure. Curse of the Black Pearl succeeded because it was completely different. Sure, there was treasure involved - after all, pirates are always after treasure - but it was a very different kind of treasure. Jack's treasure was his ship, and the freedom to go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted that came along with that. Will's treasure was Elizabeth, and his love for her. Barbossa and the Cursed Crew's treasure was being able to lift the curse, and live normal lives again. The only conventional treasure is the Treasure of Cortez, which ironically enough is what Barbossa and his crew want to return to where they found it, and have nothing more to do with it. This isn't your typical treasure hunt at all - and it was this new approach to a pirate movie that made CoTBP such a great movie. Even Dead Man's Chest and At World's End weren't conventional treasure hunts - sure everyone wants to get their hands on a chest and its contents, but instead of gold or jewels it contains the still-beating Heart of Davy Jones, which again is a very different sort of treasure to what we're used to. Everyone wants it for their own reasons - Jack wants to sail the seas forever and become immortal, Will wants to use it to save his father, Norrington wants it to get his old life back, Beckett wants it to take command of the seas through the Flying Dutchman and exterminate piracy. But again, it's a very different sort of treasure. And the third movie also focuses more on the 'final battle' approaching between pirates and the EITC, so that piracy can continue to flourish, so it's even less of a treasure hunt. This is where the fourth and fifth movies fail. On Stranger Tides is about everyone wanting to find the Fountain of Youth, and while it's not a buried chest, a quest for some kind of magical artifact is something we've seen before many times, and isn't what we're used to in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But, the movie's saving grace in this is that people have their own reasons for wanting to find the Fountain - Blackbeard to cheat death, Jack to gain immortality and because Blackbeard is forcing him to - but these are not up to par to the reasons everyone is after Davy Jones' heart. Barbossa's story is the best in On Stranger Tides, because he is after something completely different: revenge. His storyline is far more in line with the older movies. As for the fifth movie, it's even more of a conventional treasure hunt - everyone wants the Trident of Poseidon, and again for reasons that don't hold up, another magical artifact quest etc. It seems like the Pirates movies have gotten out of track a bit, and this is why the sequels (especially the last two movies) don't hold up to the older ones, especially the first.