I know many people were angry with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for “undoing” some of the story and themes from The Last Jedi; and while I do not necessarily agree with this interpretation of the film, I would like to have some fun here tackling the exact same issue happening in another movie series I love – Pirates of the Caribbean.
What I mean by this is: by the time I reached the last scene of Dead Men Tell No Tales, I had noticed the movie had undone all major story and thematic points delivered by the conclusion of the original trilogy, At World’s End, with an almost checklist-ticking attitude. They had changed the destinies of the main trio of characters to reflect the status quo of the ending of the first movie, ignoring character and story development from Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End to a large degree. Whether they did this to please fans or due to a misunderstanding of the material, I cannot say.
In his last scene of At World’s End, (Captain) Jack Sparrow has accepted a broader view of freedom (his ultimate goal), because of the events that transpired in the previous adventures. A view not connected to owning a ship, therefore Jack Sparrow passively watches Barbossa running away with the Black Pearl, setting his mind on a different goal - The Fountain of Youth, a symbolic statement of freedom within himself. The fifth movie reverts this conclusion by giving him his ship back, after initially portraying him as "down-on-his-luck” without it. The writer Jeff Nathanson puts back the concept of freedom into a material object instead.
The same situation is also true for Elizabeth Swann. In the concluding chapter of the trilogy, we see Elizabeth as a free woman who has completely embraced piracy. She becomes the Pirate King of the Brethren Court and takes her destiny onto her own hands. In a post-credits scene, we see she remains true to herself even ten years after those events, choosing to dress more freely (no corsets) and raising her son as a pirate-lover boy. In the mere glimpse we get from her character in the fifth movie, she is back in a period-appropriate dress (a corset!) and seems to have her personality reset to its portrayal back in the end of the first movie. It shows a regression in her character arc and a misunderstanding of the stories that came before. Ignored is the transformation Elizabeth goes through over the course of three movies - which is a shame considering writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott said before in interviews they consider Elizabeth Swann the protagonist of their trilogy.
Also negatively affected is Will Turner’s character. The same post-credits scene of At World’s End mentioned above presents us with a character free from The Dutchman’s Curse because of his (and Elizabeth’s) commitment to their relationship - breaking the parallel set-up with their relationship to Davy Jones and Calypso’s romance. He has also accepted he and his father were pirates - and good men - embracing the freedom from the establishment that attempted to destroy his relationship with Elizabeth due to his station. The writer of Dead Men Tell No Tales reverts Will’s character growth and ret-cons the mechanics of The Dutchman’s Curse - discarding and twisting everything that post-credits scene had established to suit the narrative of his own movie. The character also seems to have a certain amount of self-loathing for being imprisoned in this state, which also discards many of At World’s End themes. The studio made much noise about his return to the franchise, but its only achievement was adding a meaningless extension to his (already completed) story. The movie leaves Will at exactly the same place he was at the post-credit scene of the third movie, only with a less thought-out character arc, damaging what Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott previously established in the trilogy. The new team involved in the making of this film discarded these themes surrounding freedom and commitment to allow for a chase-the-trident narrative that only serves another new character entirely. This is a pattern in Dead Men Tell No Tales.
I am not even going to go onto Barbossa’s character, because Dead Men Tell No Tales does not know what to do with this character at all; therefore, the reason he has an impossible daughter to justify his appearance in his installment. His struggle has always been about being the master of his own destiny - and the fifth movie does not touch this subject in any meaningful way.
The beauty of the ending of At World’s End (acting as the conclusion of the trilogy) is the poetic decision made by the creatives to leave off these characters in a similar spot we first met them in The Curse of the Black Pearl, but fundamentally changed. Jack sailed off into the unknown in a dinghy boat again, Barbossa stole the Pearl again, Elizabeth and Will are (physically) separated again. However, their situation could not be more different - they all gained something precious from their acts of piracy - inner freedom. This makes for much bittersweet, cyclical, and “unDisney” like conclusion for the trilogy dreamed up by Gore Verbinski, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott - a bold note in which to conclude their epic stories. Dead Men Tell No Tales quickly disposes of these decisions made by the original team to replace them with an inferior saccharine-coated ending which might please fans at a first glimpse, but that ultimately accomplishes nothing on a thematic level, and is also actually nonsensical story-wise.
To add insult to injury, the state of this fictional world in Dead Men Tell No Tales is a complete reversal from what we have seen in the trilogy's conclusion. That would always be a logical problem following a sequel from those three original films. The Tarantinoesque finale of the trilogy with our pirate heroes defeating the establishment in spectacular fashion has little effect in informing the subsequent movies. The fifth movie, partially because of decisions already made in On Stranger Tides, makes the struggles of the Brethren Court and their victory against the EITC in the third act of the trilogy meaningless.
They ignored consequences in this movie. The good guys vs. bad guys dynamic in this movie are exactly the same as in The Curse of The Black Pearl. The fifth movie contributes to making the whole of the original trilogy weightless - a thematic and narrative betrayal. Our protagonists have changed the world, and it means absolutely nothing. We know how history ultimately goes down, even though these movies are pretty much on the high-fantasy genre, but could we have not approached this with more care in the fifth movie?
The funny thing about this franchise is that On Stranger Tides is usually the film hated the most by fans. However, that movie never really betrays the characters or themes of the series. It might be mediocre and sub-standard for a follow-up to a brilliant trilogy, but the worst offence of the fourth movie in the sense mentioned here is only to put both Jack Sparrow and Barbossa through an extended story-loop leading both characters to the same conclusion of At World’s End, and I can live with that thinking of it as an extended and unnecessary epilogue of sorts. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio kind of knew what they were doing with On Stranger Tides, but I cannot say the same for everyone else around them, including director Rob Marshall. Dead Men Tell No Tales just shows pure ineptitude, and the blame goes mostly to Jeff Nathanson.
To conclude, it is quite a shame Disney has not taken good care of this beloved franchise, allowing the addition of a terrible movie to the canon without careful thought about what was being done to the characters and themes previously set-up by its original creators. This is a case of actual “undoing” of what they established before in a series, in my eyes. What did they accomplish by doing this? I do not know. A big part of me not wanting a sixth film stems from this situation. The curse of the last two movies simmered down to a conceptual level was trying too hard to be the first instalment of the series again, which is impossible. That film was already made once to perfection. If the whole franchise will revert to the status quo of The Curse of the Black Pearl because of (poorly conceived) critical reception and fan pandering - I am not interested. It is interesting though, that the public discussion surrounding Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has generated an opportunity for me to think more deeply about this other franchise I adore.
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