Johnny Depp in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg
Certificate 12a
☆☆☆

LET’S face it: even the most ardent of Pirates fan must be sea sick by now. The formulaic Johnny Depp vehicle has charted a course through five films, all with the same basic idea: Captain Sparrow, a rock’n’roll rebel in the age of sail, gallivants about, swishing his way thorough an adventure involving supernatural sea-lore and the British Navy.

This instalment is no different.

Harry (Brenton Thwaites) is the son of previous chiselled hero Will (Orlando Bloom). He wants to find Poseidon’s trident, as it has the power to break all curses made at sea, and rescue his dad from the clutches of the Flying Dutchman.

Meanwhile, astronomer Carina (Kaya Scodelario) is also on the hunt for the trident as she sets to unravel a riddle set by her father, while also out on the high seas is Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), leading his crew of half-dead sailors on a mission to kill Sparrow.

The film sloshes through Sparrow getting on the grog, has lots of clashes of swords and leaping from rigging, plenty of watery magic and a bizarre cameo by Paul McCartney as Sparrow’s incarcerated uncle. It is utterly generic and you could splice the set pieces, including every face Depp pulls, into any of the other Pirate movies and be none the wiser of its addition.

Yet it does have saving graces. Thankfully Keira Knightley, who in a film franchise hardly celebrated for its strong performances managed to produce a turn less convincing than the plastic shark in Jaws, is confined to a 30-second cameo at the end. The Pirates love of a Heath Robinson-influenced set is fun – one scene where Sparrow is about to have his head lopped off by a guillotine is both inventive and amusing. Otherwise it’s the same sea-shtick, gently reheated.