Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge: reviews

What the critics say average 5.2 from 14 outlets

• 7.5 USA TodayBrian Truitt Johnny Depp?s drunken Captain Jack Sparrow stumbles into yet another seafaring adventure, which has its rocky moments but also offers an engaging tale with family legacies, above-average swashbuckling and a fantastic new villain courtesy of Javier Bardem. Read
• 7.5 Chicago Sun-TimesRichard Roeper "Dead Men? works well enough as a stand-alone, swashbuckling comedic spectacle, thanks to the terrific performances, some ingenious practical effects, impressive CGI and a steady diet of PG-13 dialogue peppered with not particularly sophisticated but (I have to admit) fairly funny sexual innuendo. Read
• 6.7 Entertainment WeeklyLeah Greenblatt What we get is the usual mash of swashbuckling nonsense and soggy mythology: There will be romance, and revelations, and some silly gold-plated cameos (hello there, Sir Paul McCartney! And whoops, goodbye). Through it all, Norwegian duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki) feel less like directors than shepherds. Read
• 6.7 IndiewireMichael Nordine Kon-Tiki directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg are at the helm this time around, proving capable captains even if the script they?re working from isn?t always seaworthy. Read
• 6.5 The WrapRobert Abele The fifth entry, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, is the most divertingly enjoyable since the first. A professionally crafted brew of action, slapstick and supernatural mumbo-jumbo, it?s less likely to spur timepiece glances than did the last few bloated installments. Read
• 6.0 The TelegraphRobbie Collin The gonzo-Wagnerian backstory the franchise subsequently built up hasn?t been sufficiently pruned ? and with so many characters to juggle, the story feels less like a coherent chain of events than a bundle of obligatory subplots. Read
• 5.8 The A.V. ClubIgnatiy Vishnevetsky Waste enough of the audience?s time with the adventures of a couple of uncharismatic dinguses, and Depp?s stage-drunk, innuendo-laced, cabaret-emcee shtick starts to creep back into being funny. Read
• 4.0 EmpireDan Jolin Not the return to form you might have been hoping for. Its story might cover all the same beats as the 2003 original, but there?s little of that film?s spark or spirit. Read
• 4.0 VarietyAndrew Barker The franchise has lost a bit of its luster with every successive installment, but never has a "Pirates" film felt this inessential, this depressingly pro forma. Read
• 4.0 The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore Scodelario, of the Maze Runner films and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, is just about the only member of the cast who seems to believe she's expected to be more than a thin generic functionary or flamboyant scene-stealer. Read
• 4.0 Time OutEllie Walker-Arnott Unfortunately for everyone, Captain Jack Sparrow is still slurring and staggering around the Caribbean. Whatever charm and charisma Johnny Depp once had in this role is well and truly lost at sea. Read
• 4.0 The GuardianMike McCahill Dead Men Tell No Tales moves at a faster rate of knots than any Pirates film; trouble is, nothing has really been added. It?s the same soggy ride, set to a marginally preferable speed. Read
• 3.3 The PlaylistRodrigo Perez The film is not unlike a classic rock supergroup reuniting to play all the greatest hits, with the payday at the end as the only true motivation, rather than returning with something new to say about their work. Read
• 3.0 Screen CrushMatt Singer Dead Men Tell No Tales is the sort of sequel that?s so bad it makes you retroactively wonder why you liked the original film so much in the first place. Read