When we condemn Johnny Depp for sleeping in the coffin of Yama (David Jones, the arch-villain of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3), it should be noted that captain Jack Sparrow, as he plays, is the eternal protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean series of legends. Even in the latest film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Against The Odds (aka: Salazar's Revenge), the character shines just as brightly as ever. In part, this is undoubtedly because Depp has gained a broader sense of recognition and simple joy in playing this role, and because he has made up his mind to be better than the last time he incarnates as Captain Jack Sparrow, but it may also be due to the difficulty of being a person to achieve sensationalism. This is the fifth film in 14 years, and the character has been given a character that is both amusing and ridiculous from the start.
In 2003, in Pirates of the Caribbean 1: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Depp combined a grotesque performance of squinting eyes and pouting, charming and casually twisting his wrists with a heroic image that made Jack Sparrow's image jump on the screen. For the next fifteen years, like the crustacean attached to the bottom of the ship, the familiar Keith Richards (legendary rock star) accent was always closely linked to the image of the pirate captain, and the role gradually became no longer outlier. Sparrow hasn't changed much on a moral level either: although he maintained a brief friendship with his companions on adventures with him, he always lived only for himself.
In Hollywood's Pantheon, similar single-protagonist blockbusters may only be more successful than Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. Both films helped cast out, but to maintain that status, Robert Downey Jr. has received more help from Disney over the years. The reason we wanted Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead to Die is Captain Sparrow's finale is because the creative team behind him is as lifeless as a necrotic sailor and hasn't paid attention to the series for a long time.
Perhaps the blame is the origin of this series of legends. Compared to Marvel's superhero movies, which have more than half a century of comic books to learn from, Pirates of the Caribbean was originally just an open-air ride at Disneyland, California. Faced with scarce plot sources, the writers mixed fables from the maritime superstition (Bill Nye's octopus-faced monster Yama king in 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Coffin of the Souls and the 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World) to Aztec mythology (the curse of the black pearl of the same name in the movie). Among them, the Tia witch played by Naomi Harris combines elements of ancient Greek mythology with psychic techniques similar to African voodoo.
In short, Pirates of the Caribbean movies are so full of mythological characters that it's impossible to know which deity controls which situation. In the latest film, Poseidon is the father of poseidon, but in the next film, it's not surprising that the writers may have put another god on the throne of the king of the sea, as the series is keen to resurrect any one god at a specific time.
In Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Against The Odds, there are clues suggesting that Ney's role as Yama of the Deep may return in the sixth installment, marking another comeback for the characters in the film. The most notorious example of this is undoubtedly the final scene of Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Coffin of Souls, in which Captain Barbosa, played by Jeffrey Rush, is killed on board the Black Pearl and brought back to earth by the Tia Witch. We also see that Captain Sparrow himself and Will Turner, played by Orlando Bloom, have also easily escaped death. But none of this is really very important in such fictional genres, except that the filmmakers seem to want us to keep a high degree of attention to a dead protagonist.
Others argue that the series has forgotten the subtleties of the feminine features they have embedded in previous films. Female pirates may be rare on the vast open seas, but in previous films, Kayla Knightley's Elizabeth Swann and Penelope Cruz's Angelica both asserted themselves and tried to fight against Captain Sparrow and his cohorts. In a new film, however, Swann is compressed into a worthless supporting role, and her successor, Karina Smith, played by Kaya Skodario, is slightly thin. The script originally wanted to re-represent the young woman's brilliant scientific ideas, but at the same time it has always placed her in a position of insignificance, and even received unfair comments from Depp Trump.
The plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead And Dead is also clunky and clichéd, not to mention that it is similar to the storyline of previous films. Under the background, "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens", which is also based on the storyline of the old movie in the series, is much better. The 2015 space blockbuster directed by J.J. Abrams didn't come to a similar indictment because the legendary series' return to tradition after some unwise attempts to shoot a prequel was enough to excite and satisfy the audience. But Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't have such a solid fan base and doesn't have the contagion to trigger nostalgia, so it can't use a Star Wars-like model to get rid of accusations of similar plots.
This is not a spoiler, and many who have seen the trailer realize that Captain Armando Salazar in the zombie costume of Javier Baden and his undead crew are an important part of the story. Maybe you think that makes sense, because the sagas in this series are all based on supernatural adventures. But if all the films in the series are always just adaptations of the old story— the ghostly evil pirates taking revenge on the radiant Captain Sparrow, then it may be time for Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew to leave the deck.
Translator: Chen Wanqi