Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men tell no Tales

Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem,
Geoffrey Rush, Kaya Scodelario,
Brenton Thwaites, Orlando Bloom

AMC Plus Cinema, Pacific Place HK


After a tasty buffet lunch to celebrate Mom's birthday here in humid HK, we decided to watch a film ... any film for that matter. It has to be said that I rarely view movies within the dark confines of a cinema theater, nowadays.  

Not only was it a treat, this particular film was being shown in 3D with special vibrating seats to boot. This is my very first time to wear 3D glasses because (1) I have the impression it would make me dizzy (2) I prefer the traditional sans special effects type of entertainment.

But there is a first time for everything so bring it on! I have seen all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and they are definitely popcorn movies. The term refers to films that are fun to watch but not particularly good, they are usually riddled with special effects and offer a pure form of escapism. In short, they are entertaining and don't require much brain cells activity.

By this 5th offering of the franchise, Johnny Depp can portray the irreverent Captain Jack Sparrow in his sleep. Probably under the influence of alcohol too just to make sense of the numerous shenanigans his character goes through.

The common elements of this franchise are still applicable here ... the numerous cast, the comical sequences of Jack Sparrow making a fool of himself (the guillotine and bank vault scenes were a hoot!), the jokes, the explosive special effects both on land and in the unforgiving waves of the vast ocean, the murky narrative with several side plots involving curses and mysterious spells all meshed to create a chaotic maritime adventure and the pirate parlance in various accents.

For me, I found it way easier to grasp the story line in this installment. A complex full blown and well drawn out tale of revenge and redemption unfolding in a span of 129 minutes. 

I enjoyed it and I conclude by saying that wearing 3D glasses wasn't as bad as I expected even though a close up visual of Javier Bardem as the decaying Capitan Salazar was terrifyingly nightmarish. I had to close my eyes from time to time. 

The seat vibration though was thankfully quite mild and it did its part of preventing me from falling asleep.  Well this isn't necessarily due to the film per se so I'd attribute it to still being quite full from the delicious buffet lunch.

P.S.

We did stay behind to wait for the short teaser/preview of the next movie after the very long credits. Well just for the heck of it because I'm clueless about its significance or how it fits into the whole franchise. 

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