Is The World Ready for Another Pirates of the Caribbean Movie?
Captain Jack Sparrow returns this year in Dead Men Tell No Tales…whether we like it or not!
“Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it’s the honest ones’ you have to look out for, because you never know when they’re going to do something incredibly…stupid.” Captain Jack Sparrow: Pirates of the Caribbean — Curse of the Black Pearl
Whether you like, love or loathe the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, one fact is inescapable…the movies are incredibly successful with fans of all ages. The combination of swashbuckling adventure and incredibly outlandish characters makes for great escapism, and the notion of setting sail aboard a stolen Spanish galleon and navigating the most dangerous mystical waters the world has to offer appeals to the pirate residing inside us all.
Who would have thought such a franchise would arrive to capture the imaginations of so many fans who, up until the summer of 2003, had no notion of the pirate mythology, save for older movies like Disney’s Blackbeard, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and The Goonies? The latter was a sensation in its own right, but the pirate element was reduced to that of a back story intertwined within the narrative of the lead characters and the adventure they were about to set off on.
And then, Johnny Depp stepped foot upon the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and brought to life a character that would illicit a fan response akin to Harrison Ford and his Indiana Jones alter ego. Captain Jack Sparrow arrived to enthrall us with his outlandish and often eccentric approach to the world of pirating. He took us on a journey of revenge against his former first mate, who had led a mutiny aboard his beloved ship, the Black Pearl, and replaced him as captain in the months leading up the movies opening sequence.
The movie boasted a perfect blend of pirate action and adventure that was accentuated by the fantastic scoring abilities of renowned composers Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt. The heart-stopping, pulse-pounding score blended perfectly with the non-stop action approach of the movie which utilized the special effects of Star Wars visual effects creators Industrial Light and Magic.
The movie spectacular was released in July 2003, earned a respectable $46 million dollars in its opening weekend, and went on to become the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year. And — just like that — a franchise was born. The movie went on to be an unprecedented success, earning $654.3 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and was swiftly rewarded with a trio of sequels with Johnny Depp taking the lead.
The resulting sequels, Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End and On Stranger Tides were released to an expectant audience, but unfortunately, with each release, the message began to dilute, and the quality of the story degraded with each installment. This fundamental flaw, however, was not enough to affect the revenue stream, which continued to fill the pockets of the studio heads at Disney looking on gloriously as the second and fourth sequels poured in over a billion dollars in box office takings.
The critical response to On Stranger Tides was not as gracious however, and received a well-deserved degree of critique due to its lack of originality. The movie was loosely based upon the novel of the same name by Tim Powers but maintained very little of the actual narrative which focused upon a sailor being press-ganged into joining a pirate crew. Despite the critical condemnation, the movie was a financial success, and reunited Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow with his sinister former first mate Captain Hector Barbossa, portrayed by the unconquerable Geoffrey Rush, in their adventure to thwart the devises of notorious pirate Blackbeard.
It was only a matter of time before a sequel was commissioned, and this year we are rewarded with yet another adventure on the high seas in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales…or Salazar’s Revenge if you reside in Europe!
Back by popular demand is Johnny Depp reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, accompanied in the adventure by cast regulars Geoffrey Rush, Kevin McNally (Joshamee Gibbs) and Orlando Bloom (Will Turner), who returns after his absence in On Stranger Tides.
The plot focuses on the resurrection of Pirate Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) who, along with his crew of ghost pirates, have escaped from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea. With this new threat in mind, Captain Jack Sparrow sets off on an adventure to locate the mystical Trident of Poseidon, an artefact that bestows upon its owner the power to control the seas. Pursued by Salazar’s school of ghost sharks, Captain Jack Sparrow is facing his finest adventure yet…
Check out the trailer here:
The sequel marks the dawn of a new direction for the franchise, with fresh directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg being brought in to rejuvenate the series. In addition to these changes, score composer Hans Zimmer has relinquished command of the scoring duties and will be replaced by his promising protégé, composer Geoff Zanelli, who worked on the previous movie in the franchise.
The question is, in a world where franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and DC dominate the Hollywood Blockbuster landscape, is there an appetite for yet another Pirates of the Caribbean movie? The world has moved on from the swashbuckling adventures upon the high seas and has gravitated back to a galaxy far, far away, where the adventures of Luke Skywalker take precedence once again. With the return of franchises like Planet of the Apes, Transformers, Alien, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine and Fast & Furious, to name but a few, is there really room for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie?
I believe so, and personally I welcome the return of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Upon its release in 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl earned my admiration with its fresh approach that provided a degree of escapism from the mundane characteristics of the modern world. Set against the backdrop of our own history with a smidgeon of fantasy thrown in, the movie managed to do what so many others have found difficult…catch lightning in a bottle. The subsequent sequels, no matter how you dress them, have fallen far short of the original’s magnificence, despite growing budgets and more elaborate plots that have brought us some of the most farfetched characters on the seven seas. Dead Men Tell No Tales seems to be no different in this respect, with ghost pirates returning to the forefront of the narrative, a move designed to return the viewers to more familiar territory and cash in upon the popular elements of the original. Whether it can build upon the foundations of its predecessors remains to be seen, but boasting the core of the original cast can only aid in the series’ restoration and cement Disney’s strangle hold on the box office further.
One way or the other, I will be in cinema queue on the day of release with my IMAX ticket in hand, eager to board the Black Pearl and set sail for adventure aplenty…
I look forward to seeing you there.
Until then…
Yo ho, yo ho a pirate’s life for me…
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