Pirates of the Caribbean Teaser: Dead Men Tell the Same Tales

The Super Bowl is always a prime platform for movie studios to launch teaser trailers for their upcoming summer blockbusters and Super Bowl LI was no different. One such teaser seen on the broadcast was for Disney’s upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth movie in the franchise.

An extended look online gives us an idea of what the long-delayed return to the Caribbean has to offer and honestly, it pretty much looks like more of the same. The teaser gives us glimpses of Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa, the returning Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner, newcomer Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar and of course Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. Taking a cue from the universally beloved Logan trailer, this teaser is set to Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave” which seems appropriate given the undead-looking pirates we see. The teaser is full of compelling imagery and excellent special effects and saves showing us Jack Sparrow until the very end. Although this teaser does not provide any real plot details and is more about showing us some cool stuff and conveying the tone, Disney has recently released an official synopsis of the film.

Johnny Depp returns to the big screen as the iconic, swashbuckling anti-hero Jack Sparrow in the all-new “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” The rip-roaring adventure finds down-on-his-luck Captain Jack feeling the winds of ill-fortune blowing strongly his way when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea–notably Jack. Jack’s only hope of survival lies in the legendary Trident of Poseidon, but to find it he must forge an uneasy alliance with Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a brilliant and beautiful astronomer, and Henry (Brenton Thwaites), a headstrong young sailor in the Royal Navy. At the helm of the Dying Gull, his pitifully small and shabby ship, Captain Jack seeks not only to reverse his recent spate of ill fortune, but to save his very life from the most formidable and malicious foe he has ever faced.

Disney is clearly hoping that Kon-Tiki directors Joachim RÃ¸nning and Espen Sandberg can right the ship of this franchise that has seen diminished enthusiasm and critical reception with each installment since the excellent first film. Unfortunately, this film looks as though it will go the safe route and basically make the same movie as the last four by just swapping interchangeable elements. In Dead Man’s Chest, Davy Jones sought Jack Sparrow to repay an owed debt; in At World’s End the brethren court needed to rescue the goofy pirate and here it appears Bardem’s Captain Salazar will be hunting Jack. Disney took an entertaining and wonderful side character in the first film and made him more and more the focus of the series. Jack Sparrow has been proven most effective in measured doses when the audience has a protagonist to follow who is more sane and relatable. But it seems that the character that turned Johnny Depp into a caricature will again be the main focus of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. This should prove interesting given the waned interest in the later films and Depp’s recent, public issues.

The trailer also prominently features Captain Salazar’s ship, manned by what the synopsis describes as ‘ghost sailors’, breaching the surface of the sea. If this small teaser for this film feels familiar, you are not alone. A supernatural ship breaching the surface of the water is something we saw in previous films. It fascinates me that this franchise is going to the same well again in such an obvious and lazy way. The Curse of the Black Pearl had cursed/undead pirates; Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End had pirates that had assimilated with sea creatures and On Stranger Tides had a crew of zombie pirates. In the newest Pirates of the Caribbean film, Captain Salazar and his crew are some sort of undead ghost pirates. I find it hard to believe that the most original pirate stories these movies can tell are simply variations on pirates suffering some manner of supernatural affliction. I like the fantasy elements of this series and I am sure this new film will be visually entertaining but the repetition of the same plot points over and over is ridiculous.

This is especially frustrating when there are original pirate stories to tell and as seen on Starz’s Black Sails, you can interweave historical figures and events with fictional ones to stellar results. I am hoping that the screenwriters and directors of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales can finally deliver something that feels fresh and exciting in the Pirates mythology and prove to be more than just Disney’s Transformers, a hollow cash grab. But, based on this synopsis and trailer, I’m not holding my breath.