The Diminishing Returns of Captain Jack Sparrow
The truth is, Depp’s version of Sparrow does the franchise a disservice after the first movie.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was an exercise in how not to make movies in the modern era. It’s large, epic scale old school action and adventure is much more reminiscent of Old Hollywood film. The leads were dashing and daring and the stunts were realistic and grounded. The movie was even a period piece, the only way this movie could invoke more of Old Hollywood would be if it was also a musical.
The special effects in the movie were largely done practically as well, and the CGI was integrated in such a way that even though it hasn’t aged spectacularly, it doesn’t break immersion or become distracting. The amazing mix Curse of the Black Pearl of practical effects and CGI was so well done that they ended up enhancing each other when establishing the aesthetics and mise-en-scène of the film
But in the sequels, the feeling is less so, with each subsequent sequel using more CGI (even though the underwater crew of the Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones himself are still impressive to this day). This is partly what contributed to each sequel feeling more stale as the franchise went on. And even though there are scenes I love in the Dead Man’s Chest and At Worlds End, the shift in tone and quality from the first movie is still noticeable.
Even the color pallet of the movie shifts in the sequels, becoming more muddy and dark compared to the bright and sunny color scheme of the first. This is actually pretty common in franchises, editing the films to be darker in order to reflect the rising stakes of the sequel films.
But in this franchise, it just doesn’t work as well, at least in my opinion. To me, the muddiness just looks sloppy and childish but I can see a valid counterargument being made that this was on purpose to reflect Captain Jack Sparrow’s personality as the new leader of the films.
Specifically, Captain Jack is the reason these sequels just feel less special. Sure they’re still fun and I have a lot of nostalgia for them, but finding the place to put the finger on how these sequels seem so witless compared to the first is challenging. But to me, I think it is Captain Jack.
In the first film, Jack Sparrow was written on the page to be a pretty archetypal swashbuckling pirate hero. In fact, he was specifically written with Hugh Jackman in mind to play him. But ultimately what made the character memorable in the first film is that Johnny Depp interpreted the character as more of a washed-up Keith Richards vibe. Depp envisioned a past his prime, rock star of the seven seas. And in the sequels, the writer wrote for Depp’s character instead of the original intent.
This made Jack more eccentric and cartoonish, which can work in smaller doses but is off-putting as a lead. I have a theory the movies would’ve felt much more equal in terms of quality if the character was still written as the Hugh Jackman version and then interpreted on set as the rock star by Johnny Depp.
I think this small change could’ve prevented the series from getting so stale so quickly. There’s only been a handful of Pirates of the Caribbean movies but somehow they burnt out quicker than most other popular trending movie franchises that released around the same time, like the MCU or Twilight movies.
Hopefully with the eventual reboot of the franchise, what sparked the attention of its audience in the first one will come back into play. A sense of realism with a story-driven by fun characters who are basically a perfect version of their archetypes rather than a deconstruction of them. With practical sets, stunts, and scale that makes the movies stand out from the CGI brawls of other popular blockbusters (which isn’t a knock against those, I love those movies too it just doesn’t fit this franchise).
I also think the mystical and supernatural elements of the franchise should be more of a plot element rather than the driving force they became later in the series.
Honestly, a back-to-basics adventurous romp might even just be exactly what people are craving once this pandemic ends.
