Film Preview: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

Page Revisions:

(October 9, 2016) Original
(February 12, 2017) New Link (Super Bowl Trailer)
(March 5, 2017) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#2-#3)
(May 21, 2017) New Posters (#4-#22)

Release Date:

May 26, 2017

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Captain Jack Sparrow searches for the trident of Poseidon.”

Poster Rating: C+ / B- / B / C+ / C / D+ (6) / C+ (5) / D+ (5) / B

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Review: (#1) Like all of the teasers for this franchise prior, the skull motif is instantly recognizable. This particular design isn’t nearly as fresh as it need to be, but is distinctive enough to differentiate it from the past incarnations.

(#2) We finally get Johnny Depp, a figure long absent from the advertising for this film. It’s a pretty bland design, but Depp is enough to secure interest. The Disney logo is a bit too chipper for the dark, foreboding feel of the design, but it’s necessary, I suppose. (#3) This is more like what we’ve come to expect from this franchise. Plenty of details, but a lot of dullness to the background image.

(#4) While it’s nice to get a lot of detail in a poster, especially if you need something to look at while waiting for a movie, but this design is far too much and feels a bit cheap as a result. (#5) The protagonist and antagonist fighting over a shipwreck. It tells you a lot about the movie without being terribly interesting. (#6-#11) A sad batch of character posters that have no richness of detail in the background and poor lighting, construction in the foreground.

(#12-#16) Another batch of character posters, this one with a significant amount of detail, but lacking a great deal of panache. These follow design #4 in their general aesthetic with minimal variance in background detail. (#17-#22) All the best and worst elements of the prior character sets, with some variance in background, but a lack of clarity of depth. (#23) This poster has the best sense of aesthetic creativity of all of the designs so far and attempts some interesting visual detail work. There still isn’t enough background detail.

Trailer Rating: B- / B

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Review: (#1) Whether there’s any wisdom in not selling the film based on Johnny Depp’s involvement (he’s never seen, just referenced by character name) may not matter. It’s a film with a built-in audience who won’t need Depp’s presence to become interested. The production values are still there, but the film feels notably darker than past incarnations. The villain is a bit too commonplace to suggest a true re-invigoration of the material.

(#2) This appears to be your fairly typical Pirates movie, with more humor and adventure than the prior trailer. It clearly knows how to say “this is the franchise you’ve long supported,” where as the prior trailer didn’t. It still doesn’t look like that interesting a film, but it’s generally a better design.