By: Benjamin He

Believe it or not, after living for over a dozen years on this Earth it was not until last week that I finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a great movie, too.

I know, I know. Berate me for putting off such a magnificent piece of media all you want, blah blah blah. I probably shouldn’t even mention the fact that I watched it at around 260p resolution on a computer off airplane Wi-Fi. But honestly, I believe the fact that I loved it, even watching it in such an inopportune situation, makes the movie even more impressive.

The movie I watched in the franchise was “Dead Men Tell no Tales,” and today, I’ll be summarizing the movie plot and going over what I like…and what I liked even more.

The general timeline of the movie starts with our protagonist, Henry, attempting to break his father’s curse. This curse requires him to be bound to a ship known as the Dutchman, and only the Trident of Poseidon, a legendary artifact, is able to break the curse. Henry’s plan is to enlist the help of legendary pirate Jack Sparrow to assist him in finding the trident.

While Henry is in the process of trying to find the Pirate Sparrow, the ship he is on sails right into an area called the Devil’s Triangle while in pursuit of another pirate ship. They are then boarded by evil undead pirates, the entire crew is subsequently killed, and Henry is spared by the pirates, if only to find Sparrow and to tell him that Captain Salazar (leader of the zombie pirates) will kill him after he finds a way out of his curse, which keeps him and his crew trapped in the Devil’s Triangle.

I won’t spoil the rest, but I thought that the movie was amazing (especially the ending, wink wink). I mean, obviously it was made by a multimillion-dollar corporation with a huge budget and very talented staff, but I thought this movie was great because it was a neat look into Disney’s glory days (cough, Strange World, cough).

Anyways, Dead Men Tell no Tales had excellent writing, well-placed humor and well-chosen emotional moments. The story tied up very well at the end, and dialogue was pristine. Maybe I just like dialogue, but the lines felt realistic, like something real people in that situation might say.

I, of course, also liked the action scenes themselves. They were very creative and incorporated use of the environment, like the scene where Sparrow fought Salazar on the ship cannons themselves.

My favorite part might’ve been the character designs. I thought that it seemed like each and every individual character was well designed, written, and acted. No matter how much of a side character they were, they felt real. Even the individual ghost pirates all had great designs.

Whether you’re a pirate enthusiast or you hate pirates, I feel that Pirates of the Caribbean will make you love it either way. It was one of the best Disney movies I’ve watched in a long time and honestly, I’d recommend this to anyone with a sense of humor…or any Johnny Depp fan.