Franchise Reviews - Pirates of the Caribbean: Wrap Up

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a strong film, and remains one of my favourite films to this today (not quite my top ten, but a strong contender in my top 20). It's a fun revival of the Hollywood Swashbuckler, with an interesting moral: Just because someone is a criminal doesn't mean they aren't a good person. They had a breakout character audiences loved, and a franchise to give him more adventures.

The only trouble is that the later films were marred by complex stories and lore, along with lengthy diversions. I still love the action and humour, but even that begins to become more cartoonish and slapstick-heavy as the films went on.

I'm going to steal "borrow without permission" something from The Nostalgia Critic which pretty much fits the view I hold of the franchise, albeit slightly tweak it:

1. The Curse of the Black Pearl: Awesome.
2. Dead Man's Chest: Kind of awesome.
3. At World's End: A little less awesome.
4. On Stranger Tides: Hey, let's see what the ninjas are up to.
5. Dead Men Tell No Tales: There's a fifth one?

I feel that the filmmakers wanted to keep escalating the fantasy elements. There's supposed to be another one in the works at some point, but I sometimes wonder if it's time to scale back the fantasy. To paraphrase another critic; "Why can't Jack Sparrow just go after buried treasure or something?"

In conclusion, I'd say just watch the first one. The rest don't add much.